Characterization and Use of Lemon Grass Extracts on Shelf-Life Extension and Quality Stabilization of ‘Broken’ Mango Variety (Mangifera Indica L.) Fruits Sold in Benue State Nigeria

Chemical and biological characterization of lemon grass methanolic extract was carried out and results of the GC-MS reveals the presence of many compounds with antimicrobial, antifungal and antioxidant activities.Among the compounds present in the lemon grass extract include; Hexadecanoic acids, palmitoleic acid, selin -6 -en -4 alpha -ol, 5-octadecene, 6-tridecen, methyl ester,2,6-octadiene, octadecenoic acid, eicosane aldehyde amongst others.These compounds attribute to the potency of C. citrates (lemon grass) as an antimicrobial and antioxidant natural bio-product that can be widely used in food preservation as an alternative to synthetic compounds.Results of the antimicrobial analysis reveals that, Lemon grass was most effective on klebsiella (15.001.41)mm followed by staphylococcus (14.502.12)mm and proteus species (14.502.12)mm, this explains the ability of lemon grass to preserve mango thereby extending its shelf-life.In addition, FTIR result of the treated and untreated fruit did not show any difference in the physicochemical composition of the mango fruit during storage.Result of the storage studies showed that broken mango had a shelf-life of 51 days as against 12 days for the control, result of the physiochemical characteristics showed that the pH was lowest at zero day of storage and it slowly increased with the advancement of storage period.Control (that is, untreated sample) had the highest pH until day 12 while that of lemon grass was up to day 51.Titratable acidity (TA) showed a gradual decrease with storage time.Total soluble solids (TSS) increased with storage time.The sensory analysis reveals that lemon treatment showed best scale point of 1 for all parameters whereas controlled samples showed poor scale point.Results of the weight loss indicates that fruits treated with the extract showed lower percentage weight loss as compared to the control generally, weight loss increased with storage time throughout the storage period.On a whole, lemon grass has proven to be a good and cheap alternative method of preventing post-harvest decay and loses through preservation and shelf-life extension of the fruits upon treatment with the extract.