Influence of coating developed from oligomer isolated from lac resin on post-harvest quality and shelf life of peaches (Prunuspersica L.)

oleh: Anjali Bishnoi, H.M. Chawla, Maulin Shah

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: Science Planet Inc. 2018-01-01

Deskripsi

Large quantities of fresh fruits are produced that never reach the consumers due to heavy post-harvest losses, lack of storage, transportation care and less acceptable quality. These losses are not only concerned in terms of the revenue but it also concern in terms of health and life style of human being. To fulfill consumer demand and to avoid losses due to environmental variability, several methods are being utilized to increase the shelf life of fruits. Fruit coatings are considered as one of the widely used methods. This work investigates the effect of fruit coating developed from oligomer (P-104), isolated from lac resin on the quality of peach (Prunuspersica L.) when stored at room temperature (36-40°C) and at refrigerator temperature (4-8°C) temperature. Fruit quality was evaluated by measuring physiological weight loss, color and textural changes as well as microbiological evaluation at a regular interval of four days. When kept at room temperature, uncoated peaches remained fresh and microbiologically safe for 4 days only while shelf life of coated peaches increased to 12 days. Again the shelf life of coated peaches prolonged to 24 days when stored at refrigerator temperature. These results showed that the combined effect of coating and low storage temperature could improve the shelf life of peaches indicating the potential of this combination for fruits preservation.