Controle da deterioração fúngica em morangos utilizando extratos brutos vegetais, frente ao fungo Botrytis cinerea

Abstract

Strawberry is a bright red fruit, succulent and fragrant, obtained from the strawberry plant, being very popular in the world for its sweet flavor and nutritional values. However, strawberries are susceptible to degradation by the fungus Botrytis cinerea because they have high metabolic activities, moisture content, sugars and acids. This fungus is the main necrotrophic pathogen that damages plant tissues, as it produces phytotoxins and enzymes that degrade the cell wall. B. cinerea is genetically variable, they acquire resistance to chemicals used for control. Thus, natural compounds can be used as alternative measures to control the fungus, such as plant extracts from barbatimão, sibipiruna, guaraná and catuaba plants, as they have antimicrobial activity. The objective of this work was to evaluate the conservation of strawberries with raw vegetable extracts against fungal deterioration. Fruits were analyzed on days 0, 3, 6 and 9 for weight loss, soluble solids, titratable acidity and pH variation, obtaining a comparative result between the control and strawberries with the extracts. For the mass loss analysis, a significant difference was verified between the samples treated with extracts and the control sample. The values obtained from the analysis of soluble solids showed that only the control and barbatimão extract had no significant changes. For the pH result, between days 0, 6 and 9 there was no significant difference between the samples. Regarding titratable acidity, barbatimão had the highest value at time 0 and the lowest value at 9 days. Thus, the extracts are alternatives for the conservation of strawberries, as they inhibit the action of the fungus Botrytis cinerea.