Effects of IMAZALIL on the Storage Stability and Quality of ‘Sefri Ouled Abdellah’ and ‘Kingdom’ Pomegranate Varieties

Abstract

Employing post-harvest treatments to maintain pomegranate fruit quality during storage is a prevalent practice within the food industry. IMAZALIL (IMZ), a fungicide, has demonstrated efficacy in reducing both the incidence of chilling injury symptoms and the presence of pathogenic fungi. This study aims to assess the impact of IMZ treatment on the technological quality (weight loss, color attributes (C* and h°), pH, titratable acidity, and total soluble solids), nutritional properties (total sugars content), and functional properties (total phenolic compounds (TPC) and total anthocyanin content (TAC)) in pomegranate fruits of the 'Sefri Ouled Abdellah' and 'Kingdom' cultivars. These fruits were collected in the Beni Mellal region and immediately stored at 4 °C for 120 days. Untreated pomegranates exhibited significant degradation in overall quality when stored in cold conditions. The fruits treated with IMZ are characterized by a major loss in weight (3.41% to 20.11%) compared to the control fruits (1.62% to 13.19%). This was accompanied by more pronounced color degradation in the IMZ-treated fruits relative to the control. This study substantiates the effectiveness of IMZ treatment in prolonging the post-harvest quality of pomegranates during cold storage, demonstrating superior efficacy in delaying losses in bioactive compounds by 39.44% and enhancing nutritional properties by 18.84%. This finding initiates the exploration of optimal IMZ concentrations and the best treatments to maintain the overall quality of pomegranate fruits.