Hydrocolloid edible coatings extend shelf life, reduce postharvest decay, and maintain keeping quality of mango fruits ( Mangifera indica L.) under ambient storage

Abstract

Mango fruit exhibit high postharvest losses due to physiological, biochemical, and pathological deterioration during storage. Edible coatings such as hydrocolloids (HC) bear promising potential for fruit quality preservation at ambient storage due to its triple action (physiological, biochemical and pathological) on fruit and thus widely researched in recent years. This study demonstrates the influence of health and eco‐safe hydrocolloid edible coatings such as “Carboxymethyl cellulose” (CMC) (1%), “Guar gum” (1.5%), “Gum Arabica” (10%), and “Xanthan gum” (0.3%) as dip treatment to enhance the postharvest quality and storage life of mangoes at ambient storage (25 ± 4°C and 65 ± 5% RH). “Xanthan gum” (0.3%) treatment exhibited the highest efficacy in reducing the decay loss by more than threefold and physiological loss by twofold over control fruit. It lowered the physiological and fruit softening enzyme activities (PG, PME, and LOX), while maintaining the biochemicals. Moreover, it maintained both internal as well as external (consumer preference) quality of fruit and extended 6 days shelf life on the physiological loss standard basis (≤10%) than that of the control. The results recommend the application of “Xanthan gum” (0.3%) as an efficacious ecological, sustainable, and health‐friendly surface edible coating for quality preservation and storage period extension of mango fruit under ambient storage. Practical applications The selected hydrocolloid edible coatings dip treatment showed promising potential in controlling the physiological, biochemical, and pathological deterioration of mango fruit stored under ambient condition. The selected treatments extended the shelf life without diminishing fruit quality. However, among the attempted HC treatments, the “Xanthan gum” (0.3%) (XG) coating displayed the excellent results. It added the storage life of mango fruit by 6 days over the control. XG treated fruit displayed the excellent results in terms of storage period extension, quality retention, consumer preference, and control over the fruit decay and softening enzymes activities. Postharvest preservation of mango fruit using HC is nonchemical, cost‐effective approach which is GRAS (generally recognized as safe), health, and eco safe.

Assessment of Himalayan plain mango genotypes for phytochemicals, biochemical‐nutraceutical characterisation and quality change during storage life

“…Irrespective of storage period, the LOX activity was observed the highest in 'Chausa' (5.49 lmol g À1 FW min À1 ) whereas, the lowest in 'Malda' (3.02 lmol g À1 FW min À1 ). Considerable variation of LOX activity were reported earlier by Prasad et al (2022a) in mango genotypes and Sharma et al (2015) in kiwi cultivars.…”

“…The fruits of mango were harvested at proper maturity (specific gravity was more than 1) during the fruiting season (March–August) from University fruit orchards of Pusa and Dholi campus. Mango fruits were subjected to de‐sapping by tightly holding them upside down and retaining pedicel length to 0.75 cm (Prasad et al ., 2022a). The fruits were stored for ripening during ambient storge condition (25 ± 4 °C and 65 ± 5% RH).…”

“…Polygalacturonase (PG), pectin methylesterase (PME) and lipoxygenase (LOX). The PG activity was evaluated according to the procedure used by Prasad et al (2022a) with slight modification. 0.4 mL enzyme extract was treated with the 4 mL of assay mixture and then the combination was incubated at 37 °C for few hours.…”

“…Among the selected mango genotypes, the overall acceptability score was the maximum in 'Malda' (8.64) and 'Amrapali' (8.52) while the lowest score was in 'Bombai' (6.60). Among the genotypes the higher sensory score of some varieties might be due to higher level of colour, taste, aroma and flavour (Prasad et al, 2016(Prasad et al, , 2022a.…”

“…Mangoes are a highly valued for delicious taste and its richness in essential nutrients, such as ascorbic acid, carotenoids, fibre, and phenolic compounds (Prasad et al ., 2022a). These bioactive components have been found to provide numerous health benefits to consumers.…”