Assessment of Quality and Biochemical Changes in Indian Jujube Fruits (Ziziphus mauritiana Lamk.): Effect of Chitosan Coating and Putrescine Treatments.

Indian jujubes are perishable fruits with a short storage life after harvest. In this study, Indian jujube fruits were stored at 5 °C and 90% RH for 30 days after treating the fruits with 1% chitosan (CHS), 1 mM putrescine (PUT), and a combination of 1% CHS and 1 mM PUT (CHS+ PUT). Physicochemical characteristics and cell wall degrading enzymes were measured at 10-day intervals. The results indicated that the efficiency of the CHS+PUT was better than CHS or PUT as individual treatments. The CHS+PUT treatment substantially decreased weight loss, decay incidence, and malondialdehyde content in Indian jujube fruits. The CHS+PUT treatment minimized losses of bioactive compounds (ascorbic acid and phenols), total antioxidant activity, and titratable acidity. In addition, CHS+PUT treatment delayed fruit softening by suppressing polygalacturonase activity and pectin methylesterase enzymes. Soluble solids content significantly increased through storage time, but applying CHS and PUT individually or in combination inhibited this increase. These results confirmed that the 1% CHS and 1 mM PUT treatments maintained the postharvest quality of Indian jujube fruits in cold storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]