INFLUENCE OF PRE-HARVEST TREATMENTS AND STORAGE PERIOD ON SUGAR CANE QUALITY

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Sugar Crops Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Giza, Egypt

2 Department of Chemistry, Faculty of science, South Valley University, Qena, Egypt

Abstract

The present work was conducted at El-Mattana Agricultural Re­search Station at Qena Governorate during the harvest season 2001 to study the effect of pre (burnt and non-burnt) and storage period (cane storage before crushing for 0, 2, 4, 6 and 8 days) on juice quality of the cane variety G.T.54-9 The results indicated that brix and reducing sugars tended to in­crease as storage periods increased up to 8 days after cutting. Mean­time, the non-burnt sugar cane exhibited the lowest brix and reducing sugars values as compared with the burnt ones_ On the other hand, the extracted juice %, sucrose %. purity % and sugar recovery % were de­creased as the storage period was prolonged. The interaction between the two variables affected markedly the rate of deterioration in all studied traits. It is recommended that cane should be harvested without burning and meantime should be delivered as early as possible to sugar mill to minimize sugar losses.