Pre-harvest bagging and ambient storage influenced fruit quality and post-harvest physiology of mango (cv. Gopalbhog)

Mango is an important fruit for its nutritional and economic importance. It ripens quickly and loses quality during storage. In this study, the mango fruits were bagged at the marble stage (45 days after fruit set) with different types of bags; brown paper bags, white paper bags, polythene bags, and non-bagged (control). After harvesting, mangoes were stored at ambient temperature (25 ± 3 °C and 80–85% RH) for 0, 4, 8, and 12 days. Results revealed that brown paper bagged fruits had well post-harvest achievement than non-bagged fruit by exhibiting advanced firmness (7.15–3.41, 7.11–2.59 kgcm −2 ), ascorbic acid (23.96–15.45, 24.13–12.83 mg100g −1 ), acidity (2.53–0.77, 1.68−0.61%), total phenol (154.66−118.49, 133.12−99.0 mg GAE100g −1 ), antioxidant activity (306.91−276.12, 244.62−177.69 µmolg −1 ), and β-carotene (120.58−783.73, 83.87−601.61 µg100g −1 ) while, delaying weight loss (2.08–8.03, 5.18–16.87%), respiration rate (3.72–12.64, 5.37–23.77 mlCO 2 kg −1 h −1 ) and ethylene production (0.24–0.83, 0.42–1.03 µl C 2 H 4 kg −1 h −1 ); reducing decay fruits (0−7.66, 0−20.16%), pH (3.35–4.43, 3.18–4.83) and soluble solids content (8.03–17.23, 9.63–18.07 o Brix), respectively during storage. Non-bagged fruits had the lowest peroxidase (POD) and catalase (CAT) activity, while bagged fruits had the lowest polyphenol oxidase activity. Brown paper-bagged fruits showed superior peel color compared to the other treatments, with greater L*, b*, and a* values. Polythene bags performed poorly on all measures compared to other bagged fruits and the control. Total phenol, antioxidant activity, CAT, POD, and titratable acidity were also substantially correlated with brown paper bag-treated fruits. These results imply that brown paper bags may increase Gopalbhog mango post-harvest quality and shelf life for 12 days, followed by ambient temperature.