Effect of Cellophane and Chitosan Coatings on Qualitative and Biochemical Characteristics of Sweet Pepper, Cultivar “California wonder” during Storage

مجله پژوهشهای علوم و صنایع غذایی ایران

Article 34, Volume 13, Issue 5 - Serial Number 47, November and December 2017, Pages 720-729   

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: 10.22067/ifstrj.v1395i0.56561

Authors

Meysam Mohammadi¹; Mehdi Saidi^{* 2}; Orang Khademi³

¹Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, Zanjan University, Zanjan, Iran.

²Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, Ilam University, Ilam, Iran.

³Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Introduction: Bell pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) from Solanaceae family is one of the most important vegetables which are fruit pods on the capsicum plant grown for their sweet fruits and delicate peppery flavor they extend to the recipes. Sweet pepper contains an impressive list of plant nutrients that found to have disease preventing and health promoting properties. Unlike in other fellow chili peppers, it has very less calories and fats. 100 g provides just 31 calories. Because of their versatility, low calories, intense flavor and high concentration of vitamins, sweet peppers are a great snack raw and an easy addition to many different recipes.In recent years extending shelf-life of this perishable vegetable has been accomplished (Banaras et al., 2005). The losses in vegetable quality and quantity between harvest and consumption affect the crop productivity. It is estimated that the magnitude of the postharvest losses of fresh horticultural crops is from 5 to 25% in developed countries and of 20 to 50% in developing countries. Fresh peppers are often eaten raw and supplied pre-cut to manufacturers as ready-to-use ingredients. However, the main problems limiting their shelf life occur by shriveling, decay development on the cut surface, as well as degreening of the vegetable among different degraded quality characteristics (Sakaldas and Kaynas, 2010). Those problems are correlated to an undesirable loss of water during metabolism or diffusion through the skin and respiration. Temperature management is the most effective tool for extending the shelf life of fresh horticultural commodities. Nowadays, to reduce high losses and keeping product’s quality, in addition to lowering temperature, coating and packing must be noticed. Therefore, in this study, dipping in chitosan solution and coatings by edible Chitosan was assayed to improve quality of sweet peppers storability during cold storage.

Materials and methods: Plant material and sample preparation: Green peppers obtained from a Research farm, College of Agriculture, Ilam University, Ilam, Iran were used in the present study. The fruits were sanitized with hyperchlorinated water (1 mL/L) and rinsed with tap water. Peppers were divided in random into different group for chitosan treatments. Treatments and storage condition: The green peppers were dipped for 2 min into a solution either 0% (control) or 1% (w/v) chitosan (Chitosan, 80-95% deacetylation degree, medium molecular weight). The coating solution was prepared by dispersing 0 and 10 g of chitosan powder into 1L of distilled water containing 1% (v/v) glacial acetic acid (Kyu Kyu Win et al., 2007) and final pH of the solution adjusted to pH 5.0. After being air dried for 2 hrs. at room Temperature, ten similar sizes fruits were placed in each plastic crate, tightly closed by cellophane films and stored at 10°C, 85-90% relative humidity to be later assessed for further analyses intended for 14 and 28 days. The control samples of ten untreated fruits per crate were kept unsealed under similar environmental conditions of temperature and relative humidity separately. The current study carried out as a factorial assay on the basis of a RCBD with three replications during 2013-2014 at Ilam University. The main factor was included of four treatments (control, Chitosan coating, Cellophane sealing and Chitosan coating + Cellophane sealing) and the sub factor was included of storage period duration (14 and 28 days). Data were subjected to ANOVA using SAS software version 9.2. Verification of significant differences was done using Duncan's Test at 5% probability level.

Results and Discussion: Results showed that fruits quality declines with long storage, but treatments with Cellophane and Chitosan decreased weight loss and kept firmness, TSS, titratable acidity, sugar/acid ratio, ascorbic acid, antioxidant activity, total phenol, and catalase and peroxidase enzymes better than control. Furthermore, for most of the traits no significant difference was observed between treatments, although cellophane coating recorded more fungal infection and lower marketability. Shelf life enhancement by Chitosan has been already reported on carrot, orange and Japanese Medlar (Rashidi et al., 2009, Ahmad et al., 1989 & Ding et al., 2002) through its antimicrobial activity (Xing et al., 2011) and suppressing respiration by blocking stomata. It has been reported that both edible and nonedible coverage (such as chitosan and cellophane) of fruits can provide a modified atmosphere surround them which results in decreasing the rate of their maturity and senesces. Taking overall quality into consideration, the best treatment was joint application of cellophane and chitosan. That treatment appears to be an effective method for improving the postharvest quality of peppers which could more effectively preserved quality and biochemical characteristics. These fruits remained hydrated, green and had good visual appearance after storage. The low rate of respiration of these fruits may also account for the retention of pepper quality.

Keywords

Post harvest; Fruit rot; California Wander; Quality; Fruit softening

References

Ahmad, M., Shah, Z., Durrani, J., Chaudhry, M. A. & Khan, E., 1989, Effect of film packaging physicochemical characteristics of blood red oranges during storage at room conditions, Journal of Pak. Agric. Res., 10:66-73

Akhtar, A., Abbasi, N. A. & Hussain, A., 2010, Effect of calcium chloride treatments on quality characteristics of loquat fruit during storage, Journal of Pak. Bot., 42:181-188.

Antonio, P., Salvator, D., Agabbio, S. & Giovanni, C.,1996, Effect of packaging and coating on fruit quality changes of loquat during three cold storage regimes, Journal of Hort. Sci., 10(3): 120-125.

Ashornejad, M. & Ghasemnejad, M., 2012, Effect of packaging with cellophane and cold storage on quality and shelf life of Japanese Medlar fruit, Iranian Journal of Nutr. Sci. & Food Technol., 7(2):95-375.

Ben-shalom, N., Ardi, R., Po, R., Aki, C. & Falik, E., 2003, Controlling gray mould caused by Botrytis cinerea in cucumber plants by means of chitosan, Journal of Crop Prot., 22: 285-290.

Bourtoom, T., 2008, Edible films and coatings: characteristics and properties, Int. Food Res. Journal, 15(3): 237-248.

Chung, H. D., Cheour, F. & Passos, A., 1993, Effect of foliar application of calcium chloride on shelf life and quality of strawberry fruits, Journal of Hort. Sci., 34(1):7-15.

Cong, F., Zhang, Y. & Dong, W., 2007, Use of surface coatings with natamycin to improve the storability of Hami melon at ambient temperature, Journal of Postharvest Biol. and Technol., 46: 71-75.

Daneshvar, M. H.,2009, Vegetables Growing. Shahid Chamran Uni. Press, 462p. (In Persian).

Ding, C. K., Chachin, K., Ueda, Y., Imahori, Y. & Wang, C. Y., 2002, Modified atmosphere packaging maintains postharvest quality of loquat fruit, Journal of Postharvest Biol. and Technol, 24:341-348.

Fang, S. W., Li, C. F. & Shih, D. Y. C., 1994, Antifungal activity of chitosan and its preservative effect on low-sugar candied Kumquat. Food Protect., 54: 136-140.

Hadwiger, L. & Loschke, D., 1981, Molecular communication in host-parasite interaction: hexosamin polymera (chitosan) as regulator compounds in race specific and other interaction. Phytopathology, 71: 756-762.

Hernandez Monoz, P., Almenar, E., Delvalle, V., Velez, D. & Gavara, D., 2008, Effect on chitosan coating combined with postharvest calcium treatment on strawberry quality during refrigerated storage, Journal of Food Chem., 110:428- 435.

Jayaprakasha, G. K., Negi, P. S., Jena, B. S. & Rao, L. J. M., 2007, Antioxidant and antimutagenic activities of Cinnamomum zeylanicum fruit extracts, Journal of Food Comp. and Anal., 20:330–336.

Kumar, A. V. B., Varadaraj, M. C., Gowda, L. R. & Tharanathan, R. N., 2005, Characterization of Chito-oligosaccharides prepared by chitosanolysis with the aid of papain and pronase, and their bactericidal action against Bacillus cereus and Escherichia coli, Journal of Bioche., 391:167-175.

KyuKyuWin, N., Jitareerat, P., Kanlayanarata, S. & Sangchote, S. 2007. Effects of cinnamon extract, chitosan coating, hot water treatment and their combinations on crown rot disease and quality of banana fruit. Journal of Postharvest Biol. Technol., 45: 333-340.

Lerdthanangkul, S. & Krochta, J. M., 1996, Edible coating effects on postharvest quality of green Bell peppers, Journal of Food Scie., 61: 176-179.

Liu, J., Tian, S., Meng, X. & Xu, Y., 2006, Effect of chitosan on control of postharvest diseases and physiological responses of tomato fruit, Journal of Postharvest Biol. and Technol., 44:300-306.

Miliauskas, G., Venskutonis, P. R. & Van Beek, T. A., 2004, Screening of radical scavenging activity of some medicinal and aromatic plant extracts, Journal of Food Chem., 85: 231-237.

Mostofi, Y., Dehestani Ardakani, M. & Razavi, S. H., 2011, The effect of chitosan on postharvest life extension and qualitative characteristics of table grape “Shahroodi”, Iranian Journal of Sci. and Technol., 8: 93-102.

Nyanjage, M.O., Nyalala, S. P. O., Illa, A. O., Mugo B, W., Limbe, A. E. & Valimu, E. M., 2005, Extending post-harvest life of sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum L. “California Wonder”) with modified atmosphere packaging and storage temperature, Journal of Agri. Trop. et Subtrop., 38: 28-34.

Rabea Entsar, I., Badawy Mohamed, E. T., Christian, V., Guy, S. & Steurbaut, W, 2003, Chitosan as antimicrobial agent: application and mode of action, Journal of Biomacromolecules, 4:1457-1465.

Ramana, T.V.R., Neeta, B.G. & Khlana, K. S., 2011, Effect of postharvest treatments and storage temperatures on the quality and shelf life of sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum L.), Journal of Scientia Hort., 132:18-26.

Ranganna, S., 1997, Manual of analysis of fruit and vegetable products, Tata McGraw Hill Publishing Company, New Delhi, India, PP:80-82.

Rao, T. V. R., Gol N B & Shah, K. K., 2011, Effect of postharvest treatments and storage temperatures on the quality and shelf life of sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum L.), Journal of Scientia Hort, 132:18-26.

Rashidi, M., Hosseini Bahri, M. & Abbassi, S., 2009, Effects of relative humidity, coating methods and storage periods on some qualitative characteristics of carrot during cold storage, Journal of American-Eurasian Agric. Environ. Sci., 5 (3):359-367.

Sakaldas,M. & Kaynas, K. 2010. Biochemical and quality parameters changes of green sweet bell peppers as affected by different postharvest treatments. Afr. J. Biotechnol., 9: 8174-8181.

Shabani, T., Peyvast, Gh. & Olfati, J., 2011, Effect of substrates on quantitative and qualitative characteristics of three varieties of sweet pepper in soilless culture, Iranian Journal of Greenhouse Culture Sci. and Technol., 25(4): 369-375.

Shahidi, F., Archchi, J. K. & You-Jin, J., 1999, Food application of chitin and chitosan, Journal of Food Sci. and Technol., 10:37-71.

Xing, Y., Li, X., Xu, Q., Yun, J., Lu, Y. & Tang, Y., 2011, Effects of chitosan coating enriched with cinnamon oil on qualitative properties of sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum L.), Journal of Food Chem. 124:1443-1450.

Xu, W. T., Peng, X., Luo, Y. B., Wang, J., Guo, X. & Huang, K. L., 2009, Physiological and biochemical responses of grape fruit seed extract dip on ‘Redglobe’ grape, Journal of LWT-Food Sci. and Technol., 42:471–476