KUMPULAN MAKALAH SEMINAR ILMIAH PERHORTI(2009) Clay as Potassium Permanganate Carrier for Banana Storage in Indonesia E. Santosa X and W. D. Widodo Department Agronomy and Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Bogor Agricultural University. JI. Meranti Kampus IPB Darmaga, Bogor 16680 West Java, Indonesia 'lAuthor for correspondence. Email : editodaira>,yahoo.com; Phone/fax:+62-25 1-8629353 Keywords: clay powder, absorbent, post harvest, Raja BuIu Abstract Clay is abundant in Indonesia. The objective of this experiment was to study usage of clay as potassium permanganate (KMn04) carrier during storage of banana var. Raja Bulu. Three levels of clay powder were used as treatment, i.e., 10 g, 30 and 50 g for six fingers of banana with three replicates. Results showed that clay powder effective as KMn04 carrier for storage of banana var. Raja Bulu. Level of clay powder 30 and 50 g significantly increased banana shelf life as indicated by skin color and hardness by 18 days after treatments, as compared to the control. Application of 30 g clay powder resulted in optimum banana storage as compared to other treatments. This experiment indicates that clay powder effective as KMn04 carrier. INTRODUCTION Banana (Musa paradisiacal L.) is one of important fruits in Indonesia. By 2008, total annual banana production was nearly 5 million ton, but accounted ca. 0.1 % was exported (Deptan, 2008) from total acreage ca 1 million ha. The low export of banana is particularly due to problem on quality. From the total acreage, mostly is managed by small scale farmer as intercrop or edge plant with diverse of variety planted. Recently, 8 leading varieties among 275 local varieties are planted widely (Deptan, 2008), i.e., var cavendish, var ambon, var raja, var tanduk (plantain), var emas, var barangan, var kepok and var uli. High diversity of variety planted in the farmer field causes complexity in handling and marketing. In term of food security for the rural village, banana becomes important food as compared to roots and tuber crops because it is available throughout year, no record of allergy, no complicated for serving and rich of vitamins and minerals. Var Raja Bulu has substantial nutrient content as compared to other desert bananas mainly on thiamin, riboflavin, pyridoxine, vit C and calcium content (CTFS, 2005). Therefore, Indonesian government through Ministry of Research and Technology nominated banana as national commodity and intensively investigated under scheme National Strategic Research (RUSNAS) managed by Center for Tropical Fruit Studies. Variety Raja BuIu is one of commercial banana (AAB) that usually consumed both as desert and after fried called as pisang goreng. Since the production area is patchy among farmer lands and among regions, lost during collection usually high range from 20-30%. Banana is climacteric fruit as indicated by marked respiration and ethylene production after harvest (Turner, 1997), causing low storage ability under normal condition. Banana easily deteriorates as indicated by changing peel color, lost of weight, and lost firmness few days after 635