The effect of packaging and storage periods on physicochemical of moringa oleifera leaves

• Main Author: Nor Fadzillah Bacho
• Format: Academic Exercise
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: SB Plant culture
• Online Access: https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/17380/1/The_effect_of_packaging_and_storage_periods.pdf; https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/17380/

This study was conducted in Sekolah Pertanian Lestari (SPL) laboratory to evaluate the effect of packaging and storage periods on physicochemical characters of Moringa oleifera leaves. The mature leaves were freshly harvested and packed into two different packaging materials; Polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) bag and labelled as treatment 2 (T2) and treatment 3 (D) respectively. Treatment 1 (T1) was a control, unpacked leaves. These treatments were stored inside cold room with temperature of 6±2°C. The parameters involved were weight loss, visual appearance, chlorophyll, carotenoid and ascorbic acid content. These parameters were evaluated for every four days interval until day 16 due to the end of storage period of the leaves as a result from pre-test for shelf life determination. Newly expanded leaves were chosen for parameter test. All data were analyzed by Two-way ANOVA and Tukey's test for mean comparison. The results showed that there was significant interaction between different treatments and storage periods on weight loss. No interaction between them on other parameters. Tl (51.62%) was the highest of weight loss compared to T2 and D, while D (6.03%) had slightly reduction of weight loss during storage period. T1 showed change of colour of leaves obviously until day 4. After day 4, the colour score was significant lower than day 0 and 4. There was no significant different of treatments on chlorophyll content. Day 0 (5.29 µg g-1m�¹) resulted in higher significantly of mean chlorophyll content, carotenoid and ascorbic acid content. T2 (43.99 µg g�¹) and T3 (156.96 µg m�¹) showed the highest mean of carotenoid and ascorbic acid respectively. The study concludes that PP bag was the best packaging material within the period of 4 days in preserving and maintaining quality of M. oleifera leaves.