Potato post-dormancy sprouting: a problem during storage and its control by essential oils as alternatives to...

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is one of the staple food crops grown in most of the world. Potato being one of the major crops in Canada, potato processing is of utmost interest to the food industry. Prior to processing, storage of tubers is an essential step for the potato processing industries. However, the sprouting of potatoes during storage is a crucial problem that results in increased weight loss, respiration, decreased nutritional quality and eventually food waste and economic loss. Tuber dormancy and sprouting are significantly affected by potato cultivar, light, storage temperature, humidity, storage ambience and so forth. Conventional and novel techniques to suppress sprouting have been evolved based on artificial chemical, synthetic, physical and natural chemical suppressants. This review describes the effect of various storage parameters on potato sprouting and the role of suppressants along with basic storage parameters to augment their effect on potato sprouting. Further, this review describes the drawbacks of artificial chemical and synthetic sprouting suppressants, and the role of natural chemical suppressants in overcoming the said drawbacks. Moreover, limitations and research gaps of natural chemical suppressants are discussed highlighting efforts to develop novel approaches followed by the restrictions and problems of natural chemical suppressants for their greater efficacy. © 2025 Society of Chemical Industry.