Application of a Chitosan-Cinnamon Essential Oil Composite Coating in Inhibiting Postharvest Apple Diseases

Wanli Zhang; Gulden Goksen; Yuanping Zhou; Jun Yang; Mohammad Rizwan Khan; Naushad Ahmad; Tao Fei

doi:10.3390/foods12183518

Application of a Chitosan-Cinnamon Essential Oil Composite Coating in Inhibiting Postharvest Apple Diseases

Foods. 2023 Sep 21;12(18):3518. doi: 10.3390/foods12183518.

Authors

Wanli Zhang^{1

2}, Gulden Goksen³, Yuanping Zhou¹, Jun Yang¹, Mohammad Rizwan Khan⁴, Naushad Ahmad⁴, Tao Fei¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Food Science and Engineering, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China.
² College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China.
³ Department of Food Technology, Vocational School of Technical Sciences at Mersin Tarsus Organized Industrial Zone, Tarsus University, 33100 Mersin, Turkey.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the film-forming properties of cinnamon essential oil (CEO) and chitosan (CS) and the effect of their composite coating on postharvest apple diseases. The results demonstrated that the composite coating exhibits favorable film-forming properties at CEO concentrations below 4% (v/v). The effectiveness of the composite coating in disease control can be attributed to two factors: the direct inhibitory activity of CEO against pathogens in vitro and the induced resistance triggered by CS on the fruits. Importantly, the incorporation of CEO did not interfere with the induction of resistance by CS in harvested apples. However, it is noteworthy that the inhibitory effect of the CS-CEO composite coating on apple diseases diminished over time. Therefore, a key aspect of enhancing the preservation ability of fruits is improving the controlled release properties of CEO within CS coatings. This will enable a sustained and prolonged antimicrobial effect, thereby bolstering the fruit preservation capabilities of the composite coatings.

Keywords: apple fruit; chitosan coating; cinnamon essential oil; postharvest.

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the Scientific Research Funds of Hainan University, China. The authors would also like to thank the Researchers Supporting Project Number (RSPD-2023R668), King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.