Maintaining the Quality of Fresh Pistachio by Post-Harvest Application of Carboxymethyl Cellulose with Clove Essential Oil (Syzygium aromaticum)

A study was carried out to investigate the effect of combined treatment of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) with different concentrations of Inian clove essential oil (M) on the storage life of Ahmad Aghaei pistachio cultivar. This research was carried out as a factorial experiment based on completely randomized design. Treatments in two levels, one concentration of edible coating: control (distilled water), 0.5% CMC along with three different concentrations of M oil including; 400, 800 and 1200 mgL-1 and the second factor of the storage period was investigated at two levels (25 and 50 days). The results showed that during storage period, hull and kernel moisture, aroma and taste decreased in all treatments, but the amount of ion leakage, peroxidas activity, browning, decay and chilling injury were increased. The application of CMC along with 400 and 1200 mgL-1 of M recorded the best taste compared to the control sample. The lowest of ion leakage was related to the combined treatment of CMC with 1200 mg, which was not significantly different from the combined treatment of CMC with 800 mgL-1. Pistachios treated with distilled water showed a higher level of decay (22%), chilling injury (22%) and peroxidase enzyme activity (48%), compared to the combined treatments.