Enhancing postharvest quality of sapota fruit using edible coatings and malic acid

Abstract

Sapota is a tropical fruit that grows in tropical regions and is highly perishable and sensitive to low temperatures. The main problem with sapota marketing is that it is ripe in less than a week after harvest and has a short storage life. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the effect of edible coatings containing 2% sodium alginate (AL), 2% carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), 10% gum Arabic (GA) and 1% oleic acid (OL) in combination with malic acid (MA) to improve the postharvest quality of sapota during 32 days of storage at 10 °C and 90% relative humidity. The results showed that the least weight loss was observed in coated fruits. In addition, the treatments resulted in more firmness and reduced electrolyte leakage. The best treatments for delaying malondialdehyde production were MA and CMC/MA, and MA was the most effective treatment for increasing catalase activity. According to the results, all treatments showed more significant bioactive compounds than untreated fruit. Application of GA/MA and AL/MA resulted in more phenol and flavonoid content, respectively. This study showed the positive effect of edible coatings and MA on improving the postharvest quality of sapota fruit.