Gum Arabic Edible Coating Reduces Postharvest Decay and Alleviates Nutritional Quality Deterioration of Ponkan Fruit During Cold Storage

Abstract

The storability recession during storage limits the postharvest storage life of Ponkan (Citrus reticulata Blanco cv. Ponkan) fruit and its nutritional value, which potentially lead to huge losses. To develop an effective technique to reduce Ponkan fruit postharvest decay and to maintain the nutritional quality, the preservation effect of 9, 12, and 15% postharvest gum arabic (GA) coatings on Ponkan fruit was investigated. The 12 and 15% GA coatings effectively reduced fruit decay as well as weight loss, retained higher total soluble solids (TSS) content, suppressed titratable acidity (TA) degradation, and postponed the rise in ripening index (RI). Moreover, the 12% GA-coated fruit exhibited a lower respiration rate, electrical conductivity, and malondialdehyde (MDA) accumulation than the uncoated (control) fruit. The 12% GA coating treatment decreased the loss of ascorbic acid (AsA), total phenols, and total flavonoids and maintained higher amounts of non-enzymatic antioxidants. Furthermore, the 12% GA coating treatment increased antioxidant enzymes' activities as well as delayed the reduction of total antioxidant capacity (TAC). These results suggest that, with the cold storage increasing time, the 12% GA-coated fruit exhibited better postharvest storability and higher nutritional quality than the control fruit. The GA coating treatment could be used as a commercial wax to improve postharvest storability, extend its storage life, and maintain the nutritional value of Ponkan fruit up to 120 days of cold storage.

Recent Advancements of Polysaccharides to Enhance Quality and Delay Ripening of Fresh Produce: A Review

“…Gum arabic and maize starch effectively coat pomegranate fruits for cold storage. In comparison with uncoated samples of pomegranate, the coating significantly reduced decay [ 91 , 92 ]. Additionally, other studies have demonstrated that gum arabic is effective at inhibiting the growth of fungi in perishable foods, such as avocado, mango, strawberries, and tomatoes, when used as packaging materials.…”

Antofine Triggers the Resistance Against Penicillium italicum in Ponkan Fruit by Driving AsA-GSH Cycle and ROS-Scavenging System

“…Ponkan ( Citrus reticulata Blanco) is an economically important variety of citrus fruit in the world and is very rich in nutrients (e.g., organic acids, vitamin C, dietary fiber, flavonoids, and minerals). It is of full juicy, rounded shape, and pleasant flavor, making it a well-received citrus fruit for consumers in China ( Cao et al, 2019 ; Huang et al, 2021a ). However, harvested Ponkan fruit is exceptionally prone to fungal infection by pathogens, such as Penicillium italicum , P. digitatum , and Geotrichum citri-aurantii ; among them, P. italicum is a causal pathogen of citrus blue mold (BM) during storage, transportation, and market, seriously limiting the storage-life and reducing the commercial value of the harvested fruit ( Kanashiro et al, 2020 ; Duan et al, 2021 ; Moosa et al, 2021 ).…”

“…Generally, the defense and protection mechanisms of fruits can be enhanced by the induction of disease resistance against postharvest fungal infection ( Xu et al, 2021 ). Novel measures have been developed to take no account of synthetic fungicides in the management and control of citrus postharvest fungal disease development, such as edible film ( Vera-Guzmán et al, 2019 ; Huang et al, 2021a ), phytohormone ( La Spada et al, 2021 ; Moosa et al, 2021 ), and biological control ( Wang et al, 2022 ). Among them, the postharvest application of plant-derived antifungal agents (PAAs) to trigger resistance in citrus fruit has been considered as a promising control approach.…”

“…Nevertheless, over-produced ROS at infection sites can induce oxidative stress, leading to a range of physiological disorders, such as cell permeability breakdown, membrane lipid peroxidation, energy depletion, protein denaturation, and DNA oxidization, thereby resulting in cell death ( Zhang et al, 2020 ; Chen et al, 2022 ). Postharvest disorder of cellular ROS homeostasis, accompanied by excessive superoxide anion (O 2 •– ) production and malondialdehyde (MDA) accumulation, will rapidly cause the oxidative damage of cellular membrane as well as cell wall and aggravate the fruit quality deterioration of harvested fruits like Ponkan mandarin ( Huang et al, 2021a ), orange ( Elsherbiny et al, 2021 ), pummelo ( Chen et al, 2022 ), grape ( Wang et al, 2020 ), pear ( Liu et al, 2021 ), and muskmelon ( Xue et al, 2020 ). To minimize the toxic effects of excessive ROS and reduced oxidative stress, plant cells have evolved an efficient ROS-scavenging system that includes non-enzymatic antioxidants, such as phenolics, flavonoids, ascorbic acid (AsA, also known as vitamin C), glutathione (GSH), and anthocyanins, and enzymatic antioxidants, such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POD), and six key enzymes in AsA-GSH cycle, namely, ascorbate peroxidase (APX), dehydroascorbate reductase (DHAR), mono-DHAR (MDHAR), GSH reductase (GR), GSH peroxidase (GPX), and GSH S-transferase (GST; Hasanuzzaman et al, 2019 ; Sadeghi et al, 2020 ; Xue et al, 2020 ).…”

Antimicrobial Activity of Films and Coatings Containing Lactoperoxidase System: A Review

“…Edible films and coatings can be produced from diverse natural constituents, such as polysaccharides (alginate, chitosan, carrageenan, pectin, and cellulose derivatives), proteins (whey protein isolate, zein, and gelatin), and lipids (waxes) alone or in combination, taken from renewable agricultural sources or food processing wastes (14,(29)(30)(31). Several types of research have proven the ability of films and coatings containing different natural antimicrobial compounds to maintain the quality and to intensify the safety of a wide range of food products, especially highly perishable foodstuffs like fruits, vegetables, and meat products (7,8,24,26,(32)(33)(34).…”