Afreen Sulthana C., Laxman Kukanoor, Kirankumar Gorabal, Sateesh Patil, Rudragouda Patil and Ashok
Abstract
An investigation was carried out to study the vase life of tinted gerbera flowers. The experiment comprised of two factors i.e., one was flowers treated with three food dyes ( Blue, Green and yellow) with 5 per cent concentration and 7.5 hrs of dipping and second with different biocides viz., 8-HQS (100 and 200 ppm), silver nitrate (30 and 40 ppm) and sodium hypochlorite (20 and 40 ppm) along with control. The results revealed that flowers immersed in biocidal solution of 30 ppm silver nitrate had recorded higher vase life (7.02 days) when compared to the flowers treated with control. Maximum moisture content (62.27 %) and relative water content (68.49 %) was observed in flowers treated with green dye, immersed in silver nitrate solution of 30 ppm. The lowest bacterial count (6.10 Ãâ 105 CFU/ml) was observed in flowers tinted with blue colour which was immersed in 40 ppm silver nitrate solution. Thus, it can be concluded that tinted flowers preserved in the biocidal solution containing silver nitrate increased the vase life and maintained the quality parameters with maximum consumer preference and sensory scores irrespective of colour.