Effects of a novel chitosan formulation treatment on quality attributes and storage behavior of harvested litchi fruit

• Published in: Food chemistry Vol. 252; pp. 134 - 141
• Main Authors: Jiang, Xuanjing, Lin, Hetong, Shi, John, Neethirajan, Suresh, Lin, Yifen, Chen, Yihui, Wang, Hui, Lin, Yixiong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 30-06-2018
• Subjects: Chitosan; Chitosan - chemistry; Chitosan - pharmacology; Drug Compounding; Food Quality; Food Storage - methods; Fruit - chemistry; Kadozan; Litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) fruit; Litchi - chemistry; Nutritional quality; Physiological attributes; Storage behavior; Temperature; Kadozan; Nutritional quality; Storage behavior; Litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) fruit; Chitosan; Physiological attributes
• ISSN: 0308-8146; 1873-7072
• DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2018.01.095

•Kadozan (commercial chitosan formula) is a convenient treatment for harvested litchis.•Kadozan treatment could maintain better quality of harvested litchi fruit.•Kadozan treatment reduced respiration rate and weight loss of harvested litchi fruit.•Kadozan treatment retarded disease development and pericarp browning of litchi fruit.•The most effective Kadozan treatment for harvested litchis was the 1:100 dilution.
The effects of Kadozan (a novel chitosan formulation) treatment on physiological attribute, nutritional quality and storage behavior of harvested “Wuye” litchi fruit were studied. Compared with control litchis, Kadozan treatment significantly decreased fruit respiration rate, retarded the increase of pericarp cell membrane permeability, maintained higher contents of anthocyanins and flavonoids and higher values of L∗, a∗ and b∗ in litchi pericarp, and reduced the decreases of titratable acidity, total soluble solids, total soluble sugars, and vitamin C contents in litchi pulp, maintaining better quality of litchis. Furthermore, Kadozan treatment decreased browning index and disease index of litchis, kept higher rate of commercially acceptable fruit, and reduced fruit weight loss, showing better storage behavior of litchis under ambient temperature. The optimal Kadozan treatment for litchis was the 1:100 (VKadozan: VKadozan + Water) dilution, which might be a promising method for keeping quality and prolonging shelf-life of harvested “Wuye” litchi fruit.