ABSTRACT
Horticultural crops play an important role in generating employment, improving economic conditions of farmers and entrepreneurs and above all providing nutritional security to the people. However, being perishable in nature, the losses associated with them reduce the profitability to both farmers and traders. Every fruit and vegetable has inherent microflora, in addition to the association of microbes from the surrounding environment. It is difficult to generate disease-free conditions from harvest and transportation till consumer table. However, certain postharvest interventions could be introduced during and after harvest to maintain the quality of produce and reduce disease incidence. Some of these interventions include proper use of harvesting tools, pre-cooling to minimize field heat changes, chlorine application for surface decontamination, wax coating to retard senescence, thermal treatments to lower disease incidence and packaging to protect produce throughout storage and transportation. An integrated approach combining all or some of these interventions can prevent produce from pathological infections and improve its shelf life. The concept of incorporating antimicrobial or antifungal molecules in the coating solutions or packaging films is also gaining momentum to control microbial infections in produce. Concerns regarding the residual toxicity of pretreatments have shifted interest towards the use of more natural and edible grade postharvest treatments for horticultural produce. In this regard, using medicinal plants, essential oils, etc. with broad-spectrum antimicrobial potential is being explored for use on plant materials.
