Original research article
Postharvest Treatment with Edible Bio- Materials to Preserve the Quality of ‘Shahvar-e-Shirin’ Pomegranate Arils
2022, 87 (4) p. 343-351
Abstract
The present study was conducted to investigate the effects of salicylic acid (SA) and chitosan (CH) pre-treatments on the bioactive compounds and quality of pomegranate arils. The statistical design of the experiment was factorial based on a completely randomized design (CRD). It included 5 levels of treating solutions (CH at 0.5 and 1%, SA at 1 and 2 mmol L-1, and distilled water as control) × 3 levels of evaluation time (days 0, 7 and 14 of storage). Each 250 g randomly mixed ‘Shahvar-e-Shirin’ pomegranate aril served as an experimental unit with three replicates for each treatment. Treatments included 5 min dips in CH and SA aqueous solutions. Following air drying, arils of each experimental unit were packed in a clear hinged pet plastic clamshell container and stored for 14 days at 5 °C with a relative humidity of 90 ± 5%. Pre-treatments with SA and CH, especially at higher doses, reduced weight loss (WL) and respiration rate, improved firmness retention, and resulted in more preferred BrimA (consumer acceptability index; CAI) and TSS/TA ratio (maturity index; MI) as well as higher ascorbic acid content (AAC), total anthocyanin content (TAC), total phenolic content (TPC), and radical-scavenging activity (RSA) in the juice and assigned better sensory evaluation scores at the time of consumption compared to the control. Finally, it was predicted that these treatments would be a promising postharvest tool in optimum storage of minimally processed (MP) arils from commercial pomegranate cultivars, which needs to be evaluated.
Keywords
antioxidant activity, chitosan, minimal processing, Punica granatum L., salicylic acid, total phenolic content
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