Effect of edible coatings on green mold reduction and quality maintenance of Mexican lime fruit

The use of natural ingredients such as edible coatings is considered as an environmental friendly way to control post-harvest fruit rot as well as delay fruit senescence. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of edible coatings for controlling fruit rot caused by Penicillium digitatum and some qualitative characteristics of Mexican lime during storage. Mexican limes were inoculated with fungi suspension and were immersed in carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), hydroxylpropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) and sodium alginate (ALG) coatings at four concentrations of 0 (control), 0.5, 1 and 1.5%. Then, Mexican lime fruit were stored at temperature of 8 ° C and relative humidity of 90-95% for 21 days. The results showed that edible coatings showed significant effects on fruit rot, weight loss, percentage of soluble solids, titratable acid, L *, a *, phenolic content and total antioxidant activity. Among the edible coatings, CMC at 1.5% reduced the fruit rot caused by green mold (77%) and reduced the weight loss (80%), TSS (5%) and increased the titratable acidity (33%) and total antioxidant activity (10%) compared to the control after 21 days of storage. Therefore, the use of edible coatings, especially 1.5% CMC, can maintain qualitative characteristics of Mexican lime and reduce the rot. Therefore, it can be used as an environmental friendly method to maintain fruit quality and reduce post-harvest waste.