Journal of Advances in Biology & Biotechnology

Mango (Mangifera indica L.) cv. Kesar is an economically valuable fruit crop but preserving the quality of fruits and improving their shelf-life are significant issues during post-handling. The current study was conducted in 2022-23 and 2023-24, in order to assess the effect of microbial consortia on the quality traits and shelf-life behaviour of mango cv. Kesar. The experiment was carried out on a Randomized Block Design that had ten treatments that were individual and combined applications of Azotobacter, phosphate-solubilizing bacteria (PSB), potassium-solubilizing bacteria (KSB), sulphur-solubilizing bacteria (SSB) and zinc-solubilizing bacteria (ZnSB). There was a substantial increase in microbial consortia treatments in the biochemical quality parameters. The highest total soluble solids (7.81 °B), total sugars (14.15%), reducing sugars (5.15%) and ascorbic acid was observed in the treatment T₁₀ (T₂ + Azotobacter + PSB + ZnSB) and the lowest values were all recorded in the untreated control (T₁). Titratable acidity was directly related with the trend where T₁₀ registered the lowest acidity in the pool (3.19%). The microbial treatments also significantly enhanced the shelf-life parameters with T₁₀ having the least physiological loss (4.53, 11.14, 18.10 and 38.26% of weight loss at 4 days, 8 days, 12 days, and 16 days of storage, respectively) and minimum spoilage (21.67). Fruits kept at T₁₀ showed a better TSS, retention of ascorbic acid and slower acidity reduction than fruits kept in control conditions. The findings also suggest that microbial consortia, especially the one that was utilized in T₁₀, are useful in improving the quality of fruits and retarding the postharvest decay, thus increasing the shelf-life and enhancing the commercialization of mango cv. Kesar. It can be concluded that the application of integrated microbial inoculation may be suggested as a sustainable and environmentally-friendly approach to postharvest quality control in mango.