The present investigation was carried out in two successive seasons of 2008 and 2009 on “Hindi" and “Zibda" fruiting trees to study the effect of pre-harvest spray, ten days prior to harvest time, with each of vitamin C solution at 1.0gL-1 "T1" and vitamin B12 solution at 1.0mgL-1 “T2"along with tap water to serve as control "Tс" on three fruit physical characteristics including changes on fruit firmness, weight loss% and chilling injury incidence. Moreover, six chemical characteristics in fruit juice including changes on vitamin C content, total acidity %, total soluble solids %, total soluble solids/acid ratio and along with β-carotene and total chlorophyll pigments in fresh peels were examined at harvest time and throughout cold storage period(30 day) at 5±1°C and 80-85% RH. The tested trees were 20-years-old, almost uniform, apparently diseases free and grown in a commercial orchard located in Kafer Saker province, EL-Sharkia governorate, Egypt.
The concerned results of physical and chemical characteristics (except for weight loss %) at harvest time and during cold storage period almost indicated significant differences among the tested treatments. The rate of changes differed among the tested treatments either at harvest time or throughout cold storage period. In general, pre-harvest sprayed trees of both mango cultivars with antioxidant solutions could be succeeded to improve the tested qualities of the treated fruit trees at harvest time and during cold storage period with different rates based on certain critical factors include the tested treatment, cultivar genotype and fruit characteristic under study. Antioxidant treatments also had an effect on shelf life of stored mango fruits with different rates due to the critical factors indicated above.
Cold stored fruits of “Hindi" cultivar continued under provided storage conditions till 15th day determination without observing the incidence of chilling injury symptoms and could be extended to 20 day storage with mild symptoms. In case of “Zibda" stored fruits, they showed a similar behavior as “Hindi" fruits till 15 day storage, afterward both antioxidant treatments succeeded to store fruits till the 30th day determination (end of storage period) with mild chilling injury symptoms. Fruits of both cultivars during these cold storage periods were of firmness and qualities acceptable to consumers.