An experiment was carried out during 2017-19 to study the morpho-physical and bio-chemical characters of Thai Apple ber (Ziziphus mauritiana Lamk.) grown in Assam. The leaves of Thai Apple ber fruits collected from different locations of Assam showed elliptic shape with serrate leaf margin, obtuse apex and oblique base. The colour of mature leaves was observed to be dark green. The leaf length, leaf breadth and petiole length of Thai Apple ber fruits shows a great variations among all collection. The plant of Gela Pukhuri and Simen Chapori recorded early flowering and harvesting among the Thai Apple ber plants of other locations in the present study. The fruits of Boitamari (BC-8) recorded longest fruit (5.10cm) while, maximum fruit weight (53.08g) was recorded in BC-1 (Simen Chapori). The shape and surface of seeds was found to be ovate and warty and pulp-stone ratio ranged from 18.76 -23.28.The biochemical analysis reveals that the quality characters like moisture content, TSS, titratable acidity, TSS-acid ratio and ascorbic acid content differed. Total sugar (6.37 -7.81%) and reducing sugar (2.44 -3.06%) contents varied significantly among the Thai Apple ber fruits of different locations. The highest vitamin A (16.08 μg/100g) were found in Gela Pukhuri (BC-3) and highest protein (0.87g/100g) was found in BC-2 (Bongalmora). The calcium and phosphorus contents of the Thai Apple ber fruits ranged from 20.48mg/100g to 23.50mg/100g and 24.08mg/100g to 25.25mg/100g, respectively. It can be concluded that Thai Apple apple ber fruits can successfully be grown under sub-tropical area of Assam. The ber fruits collected from Simen Chapori (BC-1) was found best in terms of biochemical composition i.e. TSS, TSS/ acid ratio, total sugar, reducing sugar and moisture content.

A study was undertaken to assess the suitable pre-treatment for maintaining quality of minimally processed culinary banana. The experiment was laid out in factorial CRD with nine treatments replicated three times. The minimally processed banana slices were subjected to pretreatments like Calcium chloride (2%); Calcium chloride (3%); Ascorbic acid (2%); Ascorbic acid (3%); Citric acid (2%); Citric acid (3%); KMS (2%); KMS (3%) and distilled water (control), packed in areca nut leaf sheath and polystyrene packages which were wrapped with cling film and stored in refrigerated conditions till it remains in good condition. The TSS, acidity, ascorbic acid, calcium, starch and phenols showed decreasing trend with the increase in storage period. However, TSS retention was more in KMS treated samples (5%)) with least browning, while higher ascorbic acid (11.37mg/100g) and phenol (17.04mg/100 g) contents were observed in ascorbic acid treated samples. Similarly, citric acid treatment showed higher acidity (0.168%) in the samples. Maximum starch (0.35%) and calcium (10meq/100g) contents were recorded in calcium chloride treated samples. The maximum degree of browning was observed in control as compared to other treatments and the least browning was observed in the samples treated with KMS. Among the treatments, highest PLW was observed in control and minimum in ascorbic acid treated samples. At the end of the storage period, overall score obtained for the minimally processed cooked banana was highest in KMS treated samples. Thus, it might be concluded from the study that minimally processed culinary banana pre-treated with KMS (2% or 3%) could be stored in refrigerated condition up to maximum of 10 days without quality deterioration as compared to other treatment.

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