title: Use of glutaraldehyde and benzalkonium chloride for minimizing post-harvest physio-chemical and microbial changes responsible for sucrose losses in sugar cane.
abstract: Sugar cane is sensitive to enormous sucrose losses induced by physio-chemical and microbial changes, the severity being increased during the time lag between harvest and crushing in the mills. Minimization of the sucrose losses in the field is essential for better sugar recovery and prevention of sucrose losses. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of glutaraldehyde and benzalkonium chloride for their effects on the microbial counts and physio-chemical changes responsible for sucrose losses. Glutaraldehyde and benzalkonium chloride (1000 + 250 ppm) reduced the losses in sucrose content to 7.1% as compared to the 30.8% loss in the control, thus improving the performance by 76.9%. The application of chemicals reduced the acid invertase activity (by 60%), lowered weight loss, titrable acidity, reducing sugars content, dextran, ethanol, and ethylene production and respiration rates. The application led to the reduction in the total bacterial, fungal, Leuconostoc, and yeast counts by 67.92, 51.3%, 26.08, and 51.2%, respectively.
authors.affiliation: Organic Chemistry laboratory, Division of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, Division of Crop Production, Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research, Lucknow 226 002, India. parampushpa@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Pushpa
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Namita
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Arya
authors.forename: Priyanka
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tiwari
authors.forename: Archna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Suman
authors.forename: R K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Rai
authors.forename: A K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Shrivastava
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Solomon
mesh_terms: D001548:Benzalkonium Compounds / Q000494:pharmacology*; D055598:Chemical Phenomena; D002627:Chemistry, Physical; D005030:Ethylenes / Q000378:metabolism; D005511:Food Handling; D005519:Food Preservation; D005976:Glutaral / Q000494:pharmacology*; D031786:Saccharum / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology*; D013395:Sucrose / Q000032:analysis*; D043324:beta-Fructofuranosidase / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D001548:Benzalkonium Compounds; D005030:Ethylenes; D013395:Sucrose; C036216:ethylene; D043324:beta-Fructofuranosidase; D005976:Glutaral