English abstract
Increasing the shelf-life of fruits and vegetables using edible natural substances after
harvest is economically important and can be useful for human nutritional health.
Post-harvest techniques help maintain the quality of edible tissues resulting in
extended marketing periods and reduced food waste. The edible coating on
perishable commodities is a common technique used by the food industry during the
postharvest period, that includes transport and storage. The objective of this research
is to study if edible oil application minimizes the loss of postharvest physio-chemical
attributes of banana fruit. We used two banana cultivars (Musa spp, 'Cavendish' and
'Milk') to conduct this experiment and two oils (olive oil (Olea europaea L). and
Moringa oil (Moringa peregrina)) as an edible coating under two different storage
conditions (room: 22-25C°, and refrigerator: 13-15C°) for 12 days. The fruit physiochemical properties measured per treatment include; weight loss, firmness, color,
total soluble solids (TSS), pH, titratable acidity (TA), TSS: TA ratio, and minerals
concentration. The physio-chemical properties of the banana coated with olive and
Moringa oils showed significantly (P ˂ 0.05) better results than the control banana
under both storage temperatures 15°C and 25°C. Coated bananas with olive and
Moringa oils and stored at 15°C resulted in further inhibition in the ripening process.
The lowest reduction in fruit mass and highest firmness were found when treated
with edible oils and stored at 15 °C compared to untreated fruit at 25 °C. The delayed
color change of banana peel for each coated cultivar under lower storage temperature
compared to non-coated fruit stored at 25 °C as it changes color rapidly in a shorter
time. Also, pH, TSS, TA and TSS: TA ratio were affected by coated edible oils and
storage conditions for both cultivars. In contrast, the concentration of the minerals
was significantly not affected by all investigated factors. Our results indicated that
olive and moringa oils in this study have the potential to extend the shelf-life and
improve the physico-chemical quality of banana fruits.
