Abstract

• Cucumber is a versatile food and features in a number of beauty products. This research deals with the study on the effects of gamma irradiation on some physicochemical properties (shelf life, weight loss, pH, moisture, vitamin C) of fresh cucumber fruit due to the highest content of water and light sensitive of vitamin C in it. The sample was collected from Mhawbi market, Yangon Region. This sample was gamma irradiated with 0.5 kGy and 0.7 kGy doses from Co-60 source. The non-irradiated sample was used as comparative study. The shelf life of non-irradiated and two doses of gamma irradiated samples were assessed by changing cucumber skin colour and weight loss at room temperature (29 C and humidity 74 %). The experimental results revealed that, the shelf life of 0.5 kGy and 0.7 kGy doses of  irradiated cucumber sample (7 days) was prolonged two times than that of non-irradiated sample (3 days) at room temperature under same condition. At day-2, there were no weight loss of all -irradiated samples whereas non-irradiated sample lose 4.5 % of original weight. The moisture contents and pH values of non-irradiated and  irradiated samples of 0.5 kGy , and 0.7 kGy doses were found to be (97.90 % , 88.89 % , 82.56 % ) and (5.67, 5.93, 5.51 ) by using moisture balance and pH meter. Vitamin C contents of all these samples were found to be 6.34 mg/100g on a fresh weight basis by using iodmetoric titration at day-2. During the storage time, Vitamin C contents of  irradiated samples of 0.5 kGy, and 0.7 kGy doses were found to be slightly reduced from 6.34 mg/ 100g to 5.37 mg/100g from day-2 to day-5 and from 5.37 mg/100g to 4.29 mg/100g from day-5 to day-7. The pH values of  irradiated samples of 0.5 kGy , and 0.7 kGy doses were found to be slightly reduced from 5.93 to 4.62 and 5.51 to 4.91 from day-2 to day-7, receptively. From these results, the shelf life of  irradiated cucumber fruit extended two times than that of control to distribute as fresh product. The vitamin C contents and pH values of irradiated samples are slightly reduced during the storage time.