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The present study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of chitosan (2%), ascorbic acid (40 g/L), citric acid (40 g/L), lavender oil (70%), cinnamon oil (50%) and heat treatment to enhance the quality and shelf-life of sliced dried button mushroom (Agaricus bisporous) stored at 48C for 19 days. Based on a completely randomized design, the experiment included seven treatments and four replications. Mushroom weight loss, soluble solids content (SSC), firmness, browning index (BI), vitamin C, pH, overall acceptability, and shelf-life were measured. Lavender oil treatment was found to result in comparatively the most favorable effects in terms of BI, overall acceptability, marketability, weight loss, longevity and firmness of mushrooms. The study recommends lavender oil treatment as an economical processing strategy for preserving the quality and extending the storage life of ready-to-use air-dried sliced mushrooms. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONSUnfortunately, mushrooms are highly perishable and tend to lose their quality during 3 days at room temperature and 8 days under refrigeration conditions in the fresh form, because they have no cuticle to protect them from physical damage, microbial attack and water loss as well as their high respiration rate. Their high respiration rate and high water content make them prone to microbial spoilage and enzymatic browning. Due to the lack of knowledge about an appropriate treatment for preserving the quality of sliced mushrooms, particularly air-dried mushrooms and because most of studies have focused on only a few number of qualitative traits of mushrooms this study was conducted to develop an efficient cost-effective procedure applicable for improving most of the postharvest qualitative traits of ready-to-use air-dried mushrooms with safe natural compounds.

Gerbera is one of ten popular cut flowers in the world which occupies the forth place according to the global trends in floriculture. Hence, this study aimed to investigate the effects of chemical, hormonal and essential oil substances in preservative solutions to improve its postharvest qualitative characteristics. Two pulse treatments including distilled water (pulse1) and 4% CaCl2 + 3% sucrose (pulse2) for 24 hour were applied before long-time treatments. Long-time treatments were comprised of (1) Hormonal treatments: 0, 25, 30 mg*l -1 Gibberellic acid, 0, 150, 250 mg*l -1 Benzyl adenine and 0, 100, 200 mg*l -1 5-Sulfosalicylic acid (2) Chemical treatments: 0, 0.4, 0.8 mM Silver thiosulphate, 0, 5, 10 mg*l -1 Nano-silver particles, 0, 4, 6 mM Aminooxy acetic acid and 0, 200 and 400 mg*l -1 8-hydroxyquinoline sulphate (3) Essential oils: Thymus essential oil and Stevia essential oils (0, 0.1 and 0.2 mg*l -1 ). Data were subjected to analysis of variance based on the factorial experiment model in the layout completely randomized design. Mean comparison was performed using the Duncan's multiple range test. Parameters of fresh weight, stem bending, capitulum diameter, carotenoid pigments of petal and vase-life longevity were evaluated during 12 days. The highest fresh weight was obtained when cut flowers were held in a solution containing pulse1 + 250 mg*l -1 BA. Among all treatments, 8-HQS treatment showed the best effects on preventing stem bending, increasing capitulum diameter and also on prolonging of vase-life, but nonetheless, the effects of pulse treatments and 8-HQS concentrations were insignificant. To conclude, 200 mg*l -1 8-HQS without pulse treatment has the potential to be used as a commercial preservative solution to improve the keeping quality and vase-life of this important cut flower.

The present results suggest a direct cytotoxic activity of K. odoratissima leaf extract against human cancer cell lines. This activity of K. odoratissima may find application in combination with traditional herbal medicines to develop a new anticancer pharmacopuncture therapy.