Potato Sprout Inhibition and Tuber Quality after Post-Harvest Treatment with Rosemary (Rosmarinus Officinalis L.) Leaves and Branches

After rice and wheat, Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is the third most important food crop worldwide and provides high quality nutrition, especially food energy, vitamin C, potassium, protein and dietary fiber [1,2]. Due to their short production cycle, potatoes provide food faster than cereals or legumes and produce more food calories per hectare, and use less water as compared to either wheat or rice [3,4]. Storage conditions are an important issue in increasing the storage life and conservation of horticultural products such as potatoes [5]. To assure high quality tubers after storage, it is necessary to begin with healthy, well-matured tubers of an appropriate cultivar for the intended purpose. However, several factors influence the final quality of potato tubers. These include duration of storage, dormancy status and physiological age, diseases and pests, temperature, relative humidity, application of postharvest chemicals and the composition of the atmosphere surrounding the stored tubers [6-8]. Although fruits and vegetables are often treated with fungicides to delay postharvest disease, due to the adverse effects of chemicals on human life and environmental pollution, their application in the storage process is limited [9,10]. Application of non-chemical methods, such as the use of gamma rays, UV light, heat therapyand natural products have been developed in the management of postharvest fungal rotting of fruits and vegetables in recent years [5,9,11,12]. Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) is a spice and medicinal herb widely used around the world.