Abstract:

The strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) a small fruit crop of great importance in all around the world, has a high susceptibility to a large variety of phytopathogenic organisms, promoting considerable postharvest losses. Thus, the step of sanitizing becomes important process to maintain the quality of fruits. Predominant fungal postharvest diseases of strawberry are caused mainly by Botrytis cinerea, Rhizopus stolonifer, Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, Cladosporium sp. and Penicillium sp. This study aimed to evaluate and compare with chlorine the effectiveness of aqueous ozone to overcome in vitro and in vivo postharvest diseases of strawberry during cold storage. Concentrations of traditional chlorination (immersion in Sumaveg® 150 mg/L subsequent rinsing with 5 mg/L for 10 minutes) and aqueous ozone [0 (control), 0.2, 0.5, and 1.0 mg/L] were applied during 5 minutes in both trials, in vitro and in postharvest strawberries cv. Camino Real. The experimental design was completely randomized with three replications. Radial mycelia growth was evaluated after fungal exposure to the different aqueous chlorine and ozone treatments. Significant inhibition in radial mycelia growth of C. gloeosporioides, Penicillium sp., Cladosporium sp. and Botrytis cinerea was observed (pAndamp;#8201;Andamp;lt;Andamp;#8201;0.05), respectively, in all ozone treatments as compared to chlorination and control treatments until 6 days of incubation at 25Andamp;#8201;±Andamp;#8201;1°C. In strawberries storage for 10 days at 5Andamp;#8201;±Andamp;#8201;2 °C and 80% relative humidity, the gray mold caused by Botrytis cinerea, was the disease with higher incidence, especially in fruits from chlorination treatment. Ozonation showed superior performance when compared to chlorination in reducing postharvest phytopathogens of strawberry, whereas the concentration of 0.5 mg/L for 5 minutes delayed and decreased the disease incidence in fruits. In view of it this concentration presents higher potential to be adopted in the sanitization process for strawberries cv. Camino Real.