ONION PROPERTIES CHANGES AS AFFECTED BY DIFFERENT STORAGE CONDITIONS

Hatem, M. H.; Shehata, S. A.; AbdEl-hay, Y. B.; AbdEl-Gwad, Karima F.; Abaker, B. A

doi:10.21608/mjae.2014.98929

ONION PROPERTIES CHANGES AS AFFECTED BY DIFFERENT STORAGE CONDITIONS

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Agric. Eng. Dept., Fac. of Agric., Cairo University, Egypt

² Veg. Dept., Fac. of Agric., Cairo University, Egypt

³ Agric. Eng. Dept., Fac. of Agric.,Zalingei University, Sudan

10.21608/mjae.2014.98929

Abstract

In the tropics, onion (Allium cepa L.) bulbs are usually stored in shelters under ambient conditions resulting in severe losses. Storage conditions play an important role in affecting the physical, chemical, and biological change of onion bulbs. The objective of this work was to study the properties of onion bulbs as affected by storage conditions. Three different storage conditions were used namely, forced ventilated, natural ventilated and traditional storage systems. The properties of the onion bulbs that to be studied were equatorial and polar diameters, hardness, dry matter, total soluble solids, total carbohydrates. The results indicated that, the average temperature in center of onion pile during the storage period ranged between 16.73 to 28.61 ˚C for the forced ventilated, where it was ranged between 18.18 to 31.03 ˚C for the natural ventilated, while in traditional storage system ranged between 19.52 to 32.93 ˚C. The equatorial and polar diametre change ranged between 69.33-73.44, 68.56-72.78 and 66.22-73.11mm and 53.22-57.11, 55.22-59 and 49-57.56mm for the forced ventilated, natural ventilated and traditional storage system, respectively, and the lowest changes in equatorial and polar diameter were 1.1 and 1.17%, respectively, which recorded in traditional storage system, the highest value of hardness was recorded the onion stored in forced ventilated and natural ventilated (17.20 and 17.07 kg_f), respectively. The highest TSS% was obtained in forced ventilated 14.40% and highest mean of dry matter contents recorded when the bulbs stored in natural ventilated and forced ventilated (15.94, 15.89%), respectively, On the other hand, bulbs after 7 months of storage showed highest carbohydrates mean percentage in forced and natural ventilated (8.08 and 8.05%), respectively.

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