Abstract
Guava is a fruit appreciated worldwide for its high content of bioactive compounds. However, it is considered a highly perishable fruit, generally attacked by pathogenic species such as the fungi Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, which causes anthracnosis. To diminish the losses caused by pathogenic fungi, coatings of chitosan (CS) with Ruta graveolens essential oil (RGEO) in different concentrations (0.5, 1.0, 1.5% v/v) were applied in situ and their effects on the physical properties and microbiological quality of the guavas were studied. The CS+RGEO coated fruits exhibited better physicochemical behavior and lower microbiological decay as compared to the uncoated guavas, demonstrating the effectiveness of the coatings, especially those with 1.5% of RGEO content. All the fruits coated had greater acceptance and quality than the controls, being more those with essential oil incorporation. In situ investigation of C. gloesporioides infection of guavas demonstrated that the CS+RGEO coated guavas showed a high percentage of inhibition in the development of anthracnose lesions. In the present investigation, an alternative method has been proposed to extend the stability of the guavas fruit up to 12 days with application in the food industry.
Highlights
The most considerable losses of fruits at the post-harvest level are mainly due to microbial infection during the supply chain, affecting producers and consumers [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8].Guava (Psidium guajava L.) is a sweet, aromatic fruit of the Myrtaceae family native from CentralAmerica [9]
The essential oil of Ruta graveolens was acquired from Krauters (Bogotá, Colombia), and its composition was determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) according to the methodology reported by [57], using an AT 6890 Series plus gas chromatography spectrometer, with a mass selective detector
The GC-MS analysis of the Ruta graveolens essential oil (RGEO) showed the presence of 48 compounds (Table 1)
Summary
The most considerable losses of fruits at the post-harvest level are mainly due to microbial infection during the supply chain, affecting producers and consumers [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. Essential oils (EO) are mixtures of strong odor with about 20 to 60 components including terpenes and terpenoids, coumarins and homologs of phenylpropanoids [26,27] They could be an interesting method used in the delay of the deterioration of fruits. Another study demonstrated positive changes in the physical-chemical of guava (Psidium guajava L.) fruit during cold storage properties using coatings containing 2.0% of chitosan and remarkably, changes in chlorophyll, malondialdehyde (MDA) and vitamin C contents during 12 days [15]. A remarkable inhibition of C. gloesporioides was demonstrated, as well as with a higher stability of the coated guavas with CS+RGEO, presumably by a synergistic effect of chitosan and RGEO, which could be a promising result for the application in food industry
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