Postharvest chilling injury and quality deterioration in loquat fruit are major challenges during cold storage, significantly reducing marketability and consumer acceptability. Therefore, we assessed the efficacy of a 5% gum arabic (GA) coating in mitigating chilling injury and preserving the postharvest quality of commercial loquat cvs. ‘Sufaid’ and ‘Surkh’, stored at 4 ± 1°C (90 ± 5% RH) for 20 days, followed by 2 days at ambient conditions. The GA coating significantly reduced chilling injury, fruit browning symptoms, and fruit weight loss while maintaining marketability index, sensory attributes, total soluble solids, titratable acidity, and ascorbic acid content in both cvs. compared to the control. Notably, GA treatment enhanced the activity of key antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase, catalase, and ascorbate peroxidase) and preserved higher levels of total phenolics, carotenoids, and total antioxidant capacity during storage. Conclusively, the 5% GA coating effectively mitigated chilling injury and maintained market quality in ‘Sufaid’ and ‘Surkh’ loquat fruit cvs. by enhancing antioxidant enzyme activities and preserving phytochemical attributes during 20 days of cold storage with 2 days of shelf period, offering a practical solution to enhance the postharvest potential of loquat fruit.
Ashraf et al. (Fri,) studied this question.