The effects of chitosan coating enriched with cinnamon oil on blue mold disease and quality attributes were investigated. In the in vitro experiment, the results demonstrated that the antifungal activity against P. citrinum improved with increasing concentration of chitosan or cinnamon oil. In the in vivo study, chitosan-oil treatments significantly reduced fungal decay caused by P. citrinum and all compounds with cinnamon oil at 2.0% showed complete control of the growth of P. citrinum on wound-inoculated fruits. High chitosan-oil concentrations correlated with low disease incidence regardless of storage temperature. Treatments of chitosan-oil coating also inhibited the activity of polyphenol oxidase and maintained vitamin C and phenolic compounds in wounded jujube fruits. Results suggested that the effect of chitosan coating (1.0%) enriched with cinnamon oil (0.75%) on blue mold in jujube fruits may be associated with fungitoxic properties against the pathogen and the elicitation of biochemical defense responses in fruits.

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Chitosan coating is beneficial to maintaining the storage quality and prolonging the shelf life of postharvest fruits and vegetables, which is always used as the carrier film for the antimicrobial agents. This review focuses on the preparation, property, mechanism, and application effectiveness on the fruits and vegetables of chitosan-based coating with antimicrobial agents. Chitosan, derived by deacetylation of chitin, is a modified and natural biopolymer as the coating material. In this article, the safety and biocompatible and antimicrobial properties of chitosan were introduced because these attributes are very important for its application. The methods to prepare the chitosan-based coating with antimicrobial agents, such as essential oils, acid, and nanoparticles, were developed by other researchers. Meanwhile, the application of chitosan-based coating is mainly due to its antimicrobial activity and other functional properties, which were investigated, introduced, and analyzed in this review. Furthermore, the surface and mechanical properties were also investigated by researchers and concluded in this article. Finally, the effects of chitosan-based coating on the storage quality, microbial safety, and shelf life of fruits and vegetables were introduced. Their results indicated that chitosan-based coating with different antimicrobial agents would probably have wide prospect in the preservation of fruits and vegetables in the future.

Effects of chitosan coating with cinnamon oil on the physiological attributes and preservation quality of China jujube fruits during storage at 4°C for 60 days were investigated. Results indicated that weight loss and decay of jujube fruits were significantly reduced by chitosan-oil coating during the period of 60-day storage, which also exhibited a quite beneficial effect on maintaining the sensory quality for jujube fruits. Meanwhile, the contents of vitamin C and titratable acid decreased to 3.08 mg·g−1 and 0.342% for the fruits treated by chitosan-oil coating (1.0% + 0.10%), respectively. Polyphenol oxidase, superoxide dismutase, and peroxidase activities were 13.40 U·g−1, 14.53 U·g−1, and 63.6 U·g−1 at the end of storage, respectively. The contents of total soluble phenolics and MDA were 34.51 mg·g−1 and 19.43 μmol·g−1 for the combined coating treated samples and control fruits, respectively. These results suggested that the chitosan-oil coating might be recognized as one efficiency technology on the preservation quality of jujube fruits during the storage time.

Molecular docking is a theoretical simulation method based on bioinformatics, which studies the interaction between molecules (such as ligands and receptors), and predicts their binding modes and affinity via a computer platform. This technology acts as a promising mean in medicinal chemistry such as structurebased rational drug design, which is accepted by researchers in the scientific community. During recent years, various fundamental studies involving biomolecular interaction in the food matrix have gradually emerged. The remarkable advantages of molecular docking such as predicting experiments are attracting increasing attention for its application potential in various fields. This review presents the theory and software development of molecular docking, and emphasises its application in the field of food science, including nutritional components and food safety. Moreover, the operational mechanisms of molecular docking are further summarised in this review.