Raspberry fruit is highly perishable, due to the relatively high
water content, high metabolic activity and the susceptibility to
microbial molds and rots. Fungal decay increased continuously
during storage and resulted in deterioration of about 22.54 percentof the control fruits after 8 days storage at 4 C (Table 1). The decay
incidence was reduced in the treated fruit, during storage at 4 C,
compared to the control, and no difference was found between
different gel levels. Overall, the higher rate of fruits decay was
found in untreated raspberry (control) compared with those
treated with Aloe vera gel. The antifungal activity of Aloe vera has
been reported against postharvest fruit pathogens, such as Penicillium
digitatum, Penicillium expansum, Botrytis cinerea and Alternaria
alternata and was based on the suppression of germination
and the inhibition of mycelial growth (Serrano et al., 2006).