Persian shallot is a valuable vegetable because of its nutritional value and medicinal attributes, but it has a short storage life. In the current study, the effects of curing treatments on Persian shallot postharvest decay, sprouting, color and biochemical changes were evaluated. Treatments included: control, sun curing, and convective mild air curing at 40 and 50 ºC with 1 m/s air velocity. The results showed that samples of sun curing were lost after 1 month of storage. The lowest level of decay was observed in curing at 40 ºC, while the highest was in control. The sprouting was first observed in control at 4 months of storage, while no sprouting was observed in curing at 50 ºC even after 6 months of storage. The amount of pyruvic acid, total phenol, and firmness of tissue were increased during storage in all samples. The color changes in the curing at 50 °C were more than the other treatments. The energy consumption for convective treatments was obtained 31.25 and 40.83 MJ/kg fresh shallot for 40 and 50 ºC, respectively. These findings showed mild air curing has the potential to extend shallot storage life.
