ABSTRACT
Fruits and vegetables suffer various postharvest diseases during storage and transportation stages, cause losses of about 20−30% and also reduce marketability as well as their quality due to infection of major postharvest fungal pathogens such as Aspergillus, Alternaria, Botrytis, Colletotrichum, Diplodia, Monilinia, Penicillium, Phomopsis, Mucor, Rhizopus and Sclerotinia and bacteria like Dickeya, Erwinia and Pseudomonas. The perishable nature of fruits and vegetables makes them susceptible to loss in postharvest management. Postharvest management also plays an important role between farmers and consumers. In addition to other treatments of fruits and vegetables, synthetic chemical fungicides are often used to control postharvest diseases successfully and also help to retain quality and enhance their shelf life. Despite some residual problems, alternative chemicals like plant growth regulators (maleic hydrazide and indole acetic acid) are recognized to retard senescence and onset of fruit rot. Generally regarded as safe (GRAS) chemicals because they are obtained from natural sources such as plants, animals, microorganisms having some essential oils, and volatiles, plants extracts, phenolic compounds, alkaloids, peptides, lectins, propolis, antibiotics, chitosan or latex, ammonium molybdate or calcium polysulfide, are used as substitutes for synthetic fungicides to manage diseases of fruits and vegetables during postharvest. These compounds are used to reduce losses between harvest and utilization of produce and also to maintain the quality and texture of the produce.
