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PRINT ISSN : 2319-7692
Online ISSN : 2319-7706 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcmas@gmail.com / submit@ijcmas.com Editor-in-chief: Dr.M.Prakash Index Copernicus ICV 2018: 95.39 NAAS RATING 2020: 5.38 |
An experiment was carried out to study the effect of pre drying treatments (steam blanching and organic acids) on production of quality dry flowers in carnation cv. Harvey during the year 2014 at College of Horticulture, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad. The investigation was conducted with nine pre drying treatments viz., T1 - Steam blanching for 1 min, T2 - Steam blanching for 2 min, T3 - Soaking in citric acid (0.5%) for 15 min, T4 - Soaking in citric acid (1%) for 15 min, T5 - Soaking in ascorbic acid (0.5%) for 15 min, T6 - Soaking in ascorbic acid (1%) for 15 min, T7 - Soaking in tartaric acid (0.5%) for 15 min, T8 - Soaking in tartaric acid (1%) for 15 min and T9- Control (Soaking in distilled water for 15 min) and replicated thrice. Pretreated flowers were embedded in borax + silica gel (1:1, v/v) mixture and dried in hot air oven at 55± 1 oC. Data were statistically analyzed in Completely Randomized Design. The study revealed non significant differences with respect to dry flower weight, dry flower diameter, percent moisture loss and time taken to dry. Pre drying treatment of carnation flowers with citric acid (0.5%) for 15 minutes recorded maximum score for color (2.97), shape (2.92), texture (3.40), brittleness (3.32), overall acceptability (3.65) and total carotenoid content (66.30 µg/g). Least score for colour (1.95), shape (2.05) and texture (1.99) was observed with flowers treated with steam blanching for 2 min. Least score for brittleness (1.67), overall acceptability (2.05) and total carotenoid content (21.51 µg/g) was noticed with distilled water pre treatment for 15 min.