2. Materials and methods
2.1. Fruit samples
‘Hicaznar’ is a popular sour–sweet Turkish variety (P. granatum
L.) in European markets and harvest time of the fruit extends from
the end of October to mid-November. Pomegranates for this
experiment were harvested at the end of October by hand at the
commercial harvest maturity (size 400–450 g, total soluble solids
17.17%, total titratable acidity 1.33%) from a commercial orchard in
Antalya, Turkey. On the same day, harvested fruit were immediately transported by a ventilated truck to the postharvest
laboratory of the Department of Horticultural Science and cold
storage unit at Akdeniz University in Antalya. Samples were
selected for uniformity in size, shape and color. Fruit with signs of
mechanical damage, sunburn, blemishes, disease and pest damage
were discarded. Selected fruit samples were randomly distributed
into three groups of 36 fruit and for each treatment three replicates
were used. All fruit were dipped in 0.9% prochloraz (prochloraz-Npropyl-N-[2-(2,4,6-trichlorophenoxy)ethyl]imidazole-1carboxamide) solution (w/v) for 10 s. Fruit were allowed to air dry for 12 h
at room temperature (20–25 C).