Browsing by Author "MAHNOOR AKHTAR"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    EVALUATING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ALFALFA SAPONINS FOR INCREASING SHELF LIFE OF TOMATOES
    (UMT.Lahore, 2021-07-14) MAHNOOR AKHTAR
    Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is one of the most important and widely cultivated crops worldwide. It provides many nutritional benefits to the human body and also treat various type of diseases. The worldwide tomatoes production is about 180 million tons and Pakistan produce about 5,75,923 tons. Pakistan is an agriculture country and rural community is directly linked with the agriculture sector for their livelihood therefore it plays major role in economy of Pakistan. There are many biotic and abiotic factors that affect the production of tomatoes and cause pre and post-harvest losses. The purpose of this study was to use different concentration of alfalfa saponins rich extract in nanoemulsions for increasing the shelf life of tomatoes. 40% (w/w) ethanolic extract was selected for the extraction of saponins and then used in O/W emulsion as an emulsifier but alfalfa saponins have weak stabilizing ability. To enhance its encapsulating ability, it was combined with other synthetic emulsifiers such as ML-750 and Tween 20. These emulsifiers not only increase the emulsifying ability of saponins but also stabilized emulsion for more than 7 days and used as a coating material to enhance shelf life of tomatoes. Significant improvement was noticed in quality attributes of tomatoes in term of firmness, odor, color, texture and overall acceptability. Alfalfa saponins coating and Tween 20 with alfalfa saponins increased the shelf stability of tomatoes as compare to uncoated and ML-750 combined with alfalfa saponins coating. Furthermore, the results of this study proved that quality parameter and overall shelf life of tomatoes can be increased by applying saponins coating in combination of synthetic emulsifiers.