Physical and biochemical response of red and white dragon fruit under different temperature

The present study was planned at the School of Agriculture, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara (Punjab). It was conducted at the ICAR-National Institute of Abiotic Stress Management (ICAR-NIASM), Baramati (Pune). To determine the physicochemical response of red and white dragon fruit at different storage temperatures, we laid out the experiment in a completely randomized block design with four replications, each containing five fruits. The results revealed that white dragon fruit had a better fruit length (78.81 cm), fruit diameter (67.46 cm), fruit weight (198.60 g), etc., over red dragon fruit at room temperature. Under refrigerated temperature, we also reported similar results for fruit length (76.83 cm), fruit diameter (65.30 cm), and fruit weight (192.40 gm.). However, red dragon fruit performed better than white dragon fruit in terms of biochemical parameters such as TSS (11.95 °Brix), non-reducing sugar (4.33%), reducing sugar (4.67%), total phenol (296.7 mg/GAE/100 gm.), and total flavonoids (92.00 mg CE/100 g). The current study could aid in determining the ideal temperature for fruit storage, thereby reducing post-harvest losses in dragon fruit and potentially doubling the farmers' income.