Post Harvest Management of Horticultural Crops

Reducing astringency

How to reduce astringency

Treatment with high levels of CO2 and spraying with alcohol (ethanol) will help in reducing the astringency.

Example

• Storage of persimmon in 4% CO2 at -10C for about 2 weeks before removal from the storage followed by 6-18 hours in 90% CO2 at 170C removes the astringency.
• Spraying persimmon fruit with 35 - 40% ethanol @ 150-200 ml per 15 kg of fruit is known to remove the astringency 10 days later in the ambient storage. This treatment takes much longer time than CO2 treatment, but fruits quality is better.


Fig. Cut persimmon fruits (the upper left and right cut pieces are non astringent as for an unripe persimmon and a mellowed persimmon, and lower left and right are the astringent of an unripe persimmon and a mellowed persimmon).Source-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persimmon