Herbal Edible Coatings of Fruits & Vegetables: A Newer Concept.
- Professor, Department of Food and Biotechnology, Jayoti Vidyapeeth Women’s University, Jaipur.
- Assistant Professor, Department of Food and Biotechnology, Jayoti Vidyapeeth Women’s University, Jaipur.
- Ph.D. Research Scholar, Department of Food and Biotechnology, Jayoti Vidyapeeth Women’s University, Jaipur.
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Post-harvest loss of fresh produces is a serious problem due to rapid deterioration during pre & post-harvest conditions. It is affecting the quality of fruits & vegetables. The application of edible coatings on fruits & vegetables is an effective method to improve their quality &thus, increase shelf-life. It can be safely eaten as a part of food. Presently there has been increased interest in using herbal extract such as lemongrass, oregano, Aloe vera, tulsi, mint, neem, cinnamon & clove as an edible coating material for fruits & vegetables driven by its beneficial properties. Herbs based edible coatings have been shown to prevent water loss, control ripening process & respiration rate, delay oxidative browning & reduce microbial growth in fruits & vegetables such as grapes, papaya, orange, cucumber, tomato, apple & mango. These herbal edible coatings increased the shelf-life of fresh produce & it also increased storage time of 15-35 days at low temperature whereas all uncoated fruits & vegetables decayed within 8-10 days. Thus herbal extracts are being increasingly studied as additive in edible coating on fruits & vegetables which would be an interesting & innovative for commercial application & an alternative to the use of post-harvest chemical treatment leading to the increment of shelf-life of fruits & vegetables.
[Pramod K. Raghav, Nidhi Agarwal and Mitu Saini. (2016); Herbal Edible Coatings of Fruits & Vegetables: A Newer Concept. Int. J. of Adv. Res. 4 (Jun). 1452-1458] (ISSN 2320-5407). www.journalijar.com
