Use of some medicinal plants as edible coating to maintain the quality of orange fruits during marketing

Author : Magda Mahmoud Abd-Elmaksoud and Reham Magdi Ali

Studies have shown that climatic changes may lead to a severe decrease in food production, so every fruit produced must be preserved in good condition until it reaches the consumer’s hand. Natural edible coatings have encountered considerable attention in recent years because of their advantages, including their natural and they are considered safer for consumption, as they are non-toxic and economical. Our study was conducted to maintain the quality of Valencia orange fruits during marketing, in two successive seasons 2020 and 2021, to evaluate the efficiency of some natural products of medicinal plants, such as Lemon grass oil, Lemon grass plant extract, Aloe Vera plant extract, Aloe Vera gel and, Arabic gum on the postharvest life and fruit quality parameters of Valencia orange fruit at room temperature for four weeks as a market condition. The results revealed that all postharvest treatments helped to decrease fruit weight loss %, decay %, and respiration rate and maintained shelf life and fruits quality during marketing compared to control.  Lemongrass and Aloe Vera extracts postharvest treatments were recorded with the lowest fruit weight loss %, decay %, followed by Arabic gum. While Lemongrass oil has red spots that make its appearance unacceptable.

Keywords : Valencia orange, Lemon grass oil, plant extract, Aloe Vera gel, Arabic gum.,

Received:10/19/2021 12:00:00 AM; Accepted: 10/10/2021 12:00:00 AM