Effect of Some Alternative Natural Compounds for Potato Sprout Control during Storage.

This study was carried out during two successive seasons of 2011/ 2012 and 2012/ 2013 on potato tubers of Desiree cultivar which harvested at fully mature stage to evaluate the performance of clove oil at the concentrations of 50,100 ppm and hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂₎ at 1% and 2% as a natural alternative to CIPC for control sprouting and maintaining quality in treated potato tubers kept at 10 °C and 85%RH for 5 months.
 The results showed that sprouting percentage, sprout length, weight loss percentage and decay were increased with prolonging the storage period, while tuber starch% was decreased with time of storage. All treatments retained tuber weight during storage as compared with the control (untreated) tubers. No sprouts and decay were observed with clove oil at 100 ppm treatment in all storage period, while these characters started to be shown early after two months of storage with untreated tubers (control).
 Clove oil at 50 ppm and H₂O₂ at 1% were less effective in reducing weight loss %, sprouts % and decay. Potato tubers treated with clove oil at 100 ppm, H₂O₂ at 2% and CIPC treatments were significantly higher in dry matter and starch content as compared with the other treatments.
The results suggest that potato tubers treated with Clove oil at 100 ppm or H₂O₂ at 2% is a promising as natural alternative to CIPC for control sprouting and maintenance quality during storage at 10 °C for 5 months