A Study on the Effect of Storage of Betel Leaves at Ambient Temperature

Abstract

A research study was conducted for studying the storage of Madras and Kolkata varieties of betel leaves under ambient temperature with different diffusion storage systems were observed for different treatments. In the treatment T1, the concentration of oxygen, O2 reduced to a minimum of 14.27 per cent and carbon dioxide, CO2 concentration increased to 4.80 per cent on the 14th day of storage in ambient condition (28°C). It was also reported that by the 14th day, betel leaves stored at ambient condition maintained satisfactory quality in the entire diffusion channel chambers. For the Kolkatta leaves the treatment T2, the concentration of O2 was reduced to 12.0 per cent and CO2 concentration increased to 7.87 per cent on the 18th day of storage. Compared to other treatments, the O2 concentration was found to be very low and CO2 concentration was high on the 18th day of storage in T2 diffusion channel. Similarly, on the 18th day, betel leaves stored at ambient condition maintained satisfactory quality in all the treatments. Hence, it is clear that from this present study, different varieties of betel leaves will have different rates of respiration for a particular size of the diffusion channel and temperature. In other words, varietal variation occurs concerning respiration rate under identical condition.