Background: Pomegranate fruit is very important in Iran due to its high quality, the possibility of export, and from an economic point of view. In order to maintain the quality of pomegranate, in addition to observing the principles of horticulture, the issue of proper storage after harvesting and managing the product until the time of sale is unavoidable. In order to reduce pomegranate waste, it is important to use materials that can help preserve the quality of pomegranate after harvesting.
Aim: This study was conducted to investigate the effect of melatonin and salicylic acid on increasing the shelf life of Rabab pomegranate fruit in the horticulture laboratory of the Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources of the Persian Gulf University.
Methodology: The experiment was conducted as a factorial in the form of a randomized complete block design with three replications. Ripe fruits were treated with concentrations of 0.1 and 0.5 mM melatonin, salicylic acid at two concentrations of 100 and 500 mg/L, and distilled water as a control, and at a temperature of 4 degrees Celsius. were placed the storage period for the fruits was considered to be five months, and in each period of 30 days, quantitative and qualitative traits were investigated.
Conclusions: The results of analysis of variance showed that the interaction effect of storage time and treatment was significant for all investigated traits. Also, the comparison of average data indicated that some parameters such as weight loss percentage, decay percentage, ion leakage, TSS and pH of fruit juice increased with the passage of time in the warehouse, while the characteristics of texture firmness, skin thickness, fresh weight and skin dryness, aril weight, TA and vitamin C had a decreasing trend during storage, anthocyanin and total phenol also increased and then decreased with the passage of storage time. Also, the results showed that melatonin treatments of 0.1 mM, the highest aril weight (96.66%), fresh and d