Extending the storage life of legumes by protecting it from the Callosobruchus maculatus infestation is a major concern for the producers, processors and exporters. Legume processing industry requires “greener” alternatives to the conventional fumigants. Gaseous ozone has a great potential as an insect management strategy that is suited for this niche. Nevertheless, the efficacy of ozone against C. maculatus is yet unknown. A laboratory study was conducted to test the insecticidal effect of ozone in controlling the infestation of C. maculatus in green gram. We have determined the concentration of ozone exposure time–mortality relationship for all the stages of C. maculatus that were exposed to 500–1,500 ppmv ozone. The percentages of mortality for different stages of C. maculatus increased with the increase in ozone concentration and exposure time. It was documented that adult stage is least tolerant to ozone (500 ppmv for 274.40 min exposure required to kill 90%), whereas the most tolerant stage is pupa (500 ppmv for 1816.54 min is required to kill 90%). The results indicate that gaseous ozone is the attractive alternative to the synthetic fumigants.

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Pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata Duch.) is an immense fruit with varied chemical composition and nutritional value. The aim of the study was to decide the major contributing physiochemical properties that explain the variations in different pumpkin accessions by applying principal component analysis. Thus the study revealed that starch, moisture, total solids, reducing sugar, total carbohydrate and TSS were the principal component of pumpkin accessions followed by flesh thickness, fruit weight and fruit equatorial diameter.

The study of modified atmospheric packaging (MAP) of fresh-cut bitter gourd was taken to extend the shelf life. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) and polypropylene (PP) films with a thickness of 100 micron (µ) were selected due to their less permeability to O 2 . The fresh-cut bitter gourd packaged under two different atmosphere (active -3% O 2 and 5% CO 2 and passive -atmospheric air) and stored at 8±2°C. The results showed that active MAP in LDPE had a minimum reduction in the physiological loss in weight (4.2%), chlorophyll content (19.26%), ascorbic acid (15%) and minimum increase of color value 'a' (44%), titratable acidity (66%), bacteria (50%), fungi (42.4%) after 15 days of storage. The sensory evaluation of maximum overall acceptability 8.2 was recorded in active MAP in LDPE.