Post Harvest Management of Horticultural Crops

Concentration of wax

Trade name of some extensively used waxes

• Citrashine@ from DECCO, India UPL
• Waxol -12 – Oil/ water-emulsion wax containing 12% solids
• Tal-Prolong
• Semper fresh
• Frutox - Emulsion of different waxes with 12 % solids.
Table.: Use of wax concentration on the fresh produce

Conc. of wax (%)	Commodity
12	Carrot, brinjal, snake gourd, potato, cucumber, coccinia, capsicum, ribbed gourd, pine apple, guava and papaya
09	Tomato, lime, orange
08	Apple
06	Mango and musk melon


Quantity of wax emulsion at 12% concentration required for one mt. of commodity

Item	Wax emulsion (12%) in L
Orange	3.6
Mosambi	5.4
Mango(300-350gm)	3.6
Potato	7.9
Apple	5.4
Guava	5.7
Tomato	5.0
Banana	3.0
Lime	9.0

Cost of wax treatment
Approximately it costs around 1 rupee for treating 100 apples/oranges, Rs. 2.0 for 100 mangoes and about Rs. 6.0 for 40 kg. of potato.

Colouring waxes - Dyes are sometimes added to waxes for greater consumer appeal, it is being used on red variety of Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, and other vegetables. They enhance the colour to give the same shade or tint as when the roots were freshly dug.
In citrus fruits, dye has been approved for general use. Citrus Red No.2 is 1-2(2,5-dimethoxy phenylazo)2-napththol with an established tolerance of 2 ppm.