Effect of chitosan and calcium chloride on trend of Quantitative and qualitative changes of Indian jujube (Zizphus Mauritinia) during storage

Coating fruit and vegetables with chitosan has some positive advantages for the long-term storage of them. Chitosan inhibits fungal growth and maintains the apparent quality of the fruit for a longer time. In this study, the effects of chitosan and cholid calsium in extending shelf life and maintains the quality of Indian jujube (Zizphus Mauritinia) were investigated. Fruits were immersion in chitosan (0.5, 1.5 and 2%) and cholorid calsium (1, 2.5 and 5%) for 5 min. then stored at 4°C for 25 days. Fruit quality attributes including weight loss, decay incidence, vitamin C, total soluble solids, firmness and color were evaluated an interval of five days. Results suggested that treatments (except calcium choloride 5%) reduces weight loss and decay also increases quality of color and firmness. However, there was no significant different between three chitosan coating concentrations in most cases. Both vitamin C and total soluble solids, were affected by chitosan and cholid calsium treatments. In general, for keeping appearance quality and improving storage life of jujube fruit, chitosane and cholorid calsium (2.5 %) is recommended.