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Anatomy Structure and Postharvest Quality of Pitaya Plant Treated with
Different Silicon Concentrations
Nur Darwishah Bt Mohd Amin
Supervisor: Dr Nurul Faziha Bt Ibrahim
Bachelor of Science Agrotechnology (Postharvest Technology)
School of Food Science and Technology
Pitaya plant is very susceptible to fungal infection. Occurrence of fungal infection
during storage will reduce its shelf life thus reduce marketing value. This study was
conducted to evaluate the potential of silicon in retarding the fungal activity on the
stem and fruit. For this purpose, healthy pitaya stems and fruits were dipped in silicon
concentrations (0.15% and 0.25%) before inoculated with fungal isolates
morphologically identified as Fusarium species. Postharvest quality was determined
on the fruits while anatomical structure were only determined in pitaya stem. From
this study, pitaya fruits dipped with 0.15% silicon showed reduction in diseases
severity as compared to 0.25% silicon and control. Although all the postharvest quality
were reduced from over days interval, fruits dipped with 0.25% showed a slow
reduction. This result showed that application of silicon on stems and fruits can help
in reducing fungal activity thus increase the shelf life of pitaya fruit.
1055 | UMT UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH DAY 2018