The Effect of a Chitosan-based Nano-Emulsion on Extending the Shelf Life of Apricot

Apricot is a soft fruit with a short shelf-life that due to its poor resistance against impact and unsuitable transport and storage conditions has considerable wastes. Appropriate packaging is a good policy to decrease the waste of this product in the post harvesting and marketing stages. In this research, the effect of chitosan-based nano-emulsion and chitosan-based nano-containers on the shelf-life of apricot fruit were studied. For this purpose, the two Iranian apricot cultivars namely the 58-Shahroud (526) and the ChinKalaghi (510) were obtained from Karaj's Kamal-Shahr research station, coated with the aforementioned wax and stored at 0°C. In addition, some of the fruit samples were packed in the chitosan nano-based containers. During the cold storage period, required tests such as respiration rate, firmness, color, weight, brix, acidity, TSS/TA, ethylene production, and total microbial count of apricot samples were performed and determined every week and the effect of the aforesaid wax on the durability of apricots was studied. For comparison, the apricots without coating and container were used as a control. All treatments were then kept in the cold storage at a temperature of 0 °C for 8 weeks. Results showed a significant difference (in the order of 1%) between the factors of coating, cultivar, and control for many characteristics of treatments. In terms of the loss of weight and moisture, the cultivar 526's coating and container were more successful in retaining the moisture compared to the ones for the control. In addition, coating performed better compared to container. Coating was more successful compared to the control and container in retaining the moisture for cultivar 510 as well. It seems that in the early period of storage, coating and container were better than the control in preserving the texture, however after the mid period of storage, coating and control were not very different. Therefore, excluding the end of the period ehere the condition of nano containers become similar to those of the control and coating; container provides a better texture for the apricots. The brix of the samples of both cultivars increase during the storage period. Among the treatments, coating has performed better in apricots brix consolidation. The average pH and acidity characteristics for control samples, container and coating of both cultivars during the storage period have an ascending/descending trend. The average index of flavor for the treatment control, container and coating increases during storage. The samples within container are more effective in enhancing the flavor index compared to the other two treatments. The characteristic changes of vitamin C for the control, coating and container treatments decreases during storage for both cultivars. ÄÅ average has increasing trend for all treatments of both cultivars although there is not a significant difference between the treatmented apricots and control. A significant difference (in the order of 1%) observes between the factors of coating, cultivar, and storage time in terms of the respiration rate. However, there is no a significant difference for ethylene production of samples. chitosan nano-emulsion and the chitosan nano-container has important role in the preventing of the microbial growth than control. SEM confirmes a nano-based coating on the skin of both cultivars. In general, the significant difference between some characteristics of apricot, showing the difference in the content packaging. Therefore, the use of chitosan as an edible or coating film is a suitable packaging material due to its anti-bacterial as well as physical and chemical properties.