Postharvest Biology and Technology 39 (2006) 93–100

Postharvest sweet cherry quality and safety maintenance byAloe vera treatment: A new edible coating

D. Martınez-Romeroa, N. Alburquerqueb, J.M. Valverdea,F. Guillena, S. Castilloa, D. Valeroa, M. Serranoc,∗

a Department of Food Technology, EPSO, University Miguel Hernandez, Ctra. Beniel km. 3,2, 03312 Orihuela, Alicante, Spainb Department Fruit Growing, IMIDA, C. Mayor s/n, 30150 La Alberca, Murcia, Spain

c Department of Applied Biology, EPSO, University Miguel Hernandez, Ctra. Beniel km. 3,2, 03312 Orihuela, Alicante, Spain

Received 16 May 2005; accepted 8 September 2005

Abstract

A novel edible coating based onAloe vera gel, accordingly to our developed patent (SP Patent Filed P200302937), has been used aspostharvest treatment to maintain sweet cherry quality and safety. During cold storage, uncoated fruit showed increases in respiration rate,r se processesb vep fects in termso avours. Asf ans forc©

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apid weight loss and colour changes, accelerated softening and ripening, stem browning and increased microbial populations, theeing more intense during the shelf life periods. On the contrary, sweet cherry treated withA. vera gel significantly delayed the aboarameters related to postharvest quality losses, and storability could be extended. The sensory analyses revealed beneficial eff delaying stem browning and dehydration, maintenance of fruit visual aspect without any detrimental effect on taste, aroma or fl

ar as we aware, this is the first timeA. vera gel is used as an edible coating in fruit, which would be an innovative and interesting meommercial application and as alternative of the use of postharvest chemical treatments.2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

eywords: Aloe vera; Colour; Firmness; Ripening; Sensory analyses

. Introduction

Sweet cherry is one of the most appreciated fruit by con-umers since it is an early season fruit and has an excellentuality. The main quality indices are skin colour, which iselated to fruit ripening and affected by anthocyanin concen-ration (Serrano et al., 2005a), and total soluble solids-totalcidity ratio (TSS/TA) at harvest. Both parameters, togetherith the absence of stem browning determine consumercceptance (Crisosto et al., 2003). TSS ranges between 11 and5◦Brix depending on cultivar and is mainly due to glucosend fructose and less to the presence of sucrose and sorbitol.A depends also on cultivar, with levels of 0.4–1.5%, the mainrganic acid being malic acid (Esti et al., 2002; Bernalte etl., 2003). Fruit firmness is also an important quality attributend is directly related to enhancement of storability potential

∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 96 6749616; fax: +34 96 6749678.E-mail address: m.serrano@umh.es (M. Serrano).

and induction of greater resistance to decay and mechadamage (Barret and Gonzalez, 1994).

Sweet cherry fruit deteriorate rapidly after harvest ansome cases do not reach consumers at optical qualitytransport and marketing. The main causes of sweet cdeterioration are weight loss, colour changes, softeningface pitting, stem browning and loss of acidity, while lvariations occur in TSS (Bernalte et al., 2003). Finally, special care is needed with the occurrence of decay, whimainly due to species of the generaPenicillium, Botrytisand Monilia (Venturini et al., 2002). This fungal spoilagcan cause great economic losses, although the occurrerots and their influence on sweet cherry quality have breported to be dependent on cultivar and ripening staharvest (Esti et al., 2002; Kappel et al., 2002). Several preand postharvest technologies have been used to controlbut the postharvest use of chemicals as fungicides is restin most countries and consumers demand agriculturalmodities without pesticide residues (Wilcock et al., 2004).

925-5214/$ – see front matter © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.oi:10.1016/j.postharvbio.2005.09.006

94 D. Martınez-Romero et al. / Postharvest Biology and Technology 39 (2006) 93–100

Among these technologies, the use of modified atmospherepackaging (MAP) has been reported to be effective in delay-ing the physico-chemical changes related to sweet cherryfruit quality loss (Spotts et al., 2002; Remon et al., 2003).Recently, the combination of MAP with several essential oilshas been shown to improve the beneficial effect of MAP onmaintaining sweet cherry fruit quality during cold storageand extending shelf life (Serrano et al., 2005b).

Edible coatings are traditionally used to improve foodappearance and conservation. They act as barriers during pro-cessing, handling and storage, and do not solely retard fooddeterioration enhancing its quality, but are safe due to natu-ral biocide activity, or to the incorporation of antimicrobialcompounds (Petersen et al., 1999). Different compounds havemainly been used as edible coatings to prevent commodityweight loss, including wax, milk proteins, celluloses, lipids,starch, zein, and alginate (Cha and Chinnan, 2004). In therecent literature, there is little evidence of the use of edi-ble coatings in sweet cherry. Thus, SemperfreshTM reducedweight loss and softening, extending shelf life (Yaman andBayindirh, 2002), although fungicides should be added toavoid fungal spoliage (Yaman and Bayindirh, 2001). Deriva-tives of fatty acids and polysaccharides decreased sweetcherry fruit respiration rate and weight loss (Alonso andAlique, 2004). In addition, edible coatings based on chitosanalone or in combination with hypobaric treatments reducedp

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into two batches. Half of them were treated withA. vera L.gel (pharmaceutical quality, 100% purity) manufactured byRoig Farma S.A. (Tarrasa, Barcelona, Spain). The treatmentwas performed at 20◦C by immersion for 5 min in a solu-tion of A. vera diluted 1:3 with distilled water. The other halfwere immersed in distilled water and served as the control.Following treatment, sweet cherries were air-dried, randomlydivided into 20 fruit lots (average mass of 140 g) and storedat 1◦C and 95% RH in permanent darkness. Ten lots for bothtreated and control fruit were taken out after 2, 6, 9, 13 and16 days of cold storage, half of them were immediately anal-ysed and the remainder after one additional day of storage at20◦C (shelf life, SL).

2.2. Respiration rate

CO2 production rate was measured by placing each lotand replication of 20 fruit in a 0.5–1 glass jar hermeticallysealed with a rubber stopper for 30 min. One millilitre of theatmosphere was withdrawn with a gas syringe, and CO2 quan-tified using a ShimadzuTM 14A gas chromatograph (Kyoto,Japan), with a thermal conductivity detector (TCD) and a 3 mstainless steel column with an inner diameter of 3.3 mm con-taining Chromosorb 102. The carrier gas was helium at a flowrate of 50 ml min−1. The column temperature was 55◦C, andinjector and detector temperatures were 110◦C. Results aret ther

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T2iT K)i turep forcet a flats

ieveda ultsw ieved

ostharvest decay in sweet cherry (Romanazzi et al., 2003).Currently, there is an increasing interest in the us

loe vera gel in the food industry, being used as a sourcunctional foods in drinks, beverages and ice creams (Moorend MacAnalley, 1995). Nevertheless, processing techniqsed to obtainA. vera gel are very important to ensure troduct quality and to maintain almost all the bioactive conents (He et al., 2005).

The aim of this work was to study the effect ofA.era, applied as an edible coating according to our paMartınez-Romero et al., 2003), on the change in physichemical parameters related to fruit quality during cold sge and shelf life in sweet cherry, as well as its rolontrolling microbial spoilage. As far as we aware, thihe first published paper in whichA. vera gel is used as adible coating in sweet cherry fruit. It could be an innovand interesting commercial product and an alternative tse of synthetic postharvest fungicides.

. Materials and methods

.1. Plant material and experimental design

Sweet cherries (Prunus avium L. cv. StarKing) were haested from a commercial farm belonging to Denominaonspecıfica “Cerezas de la Montana de Alicante” (Alicantepain). At the laboratory, 2100 fruit of homogeneous cond size, absence of injuries, and healthy greenish stemelected. One hundred fruit were used to analyse propt harvest (5 lots of 20 fruit), and the remainder were

he means± S.E. of four determinations for each one ofeplicates used (n = 20) and are expressed as mmol kg−1 h−1.

.3. Weight loss

Weight of individual lots was recorded following treent (day 0) and at the different sampling dates. Cumuleight losses were expressed as percentage loss of oeight (n = 5).

.4. Colour

Colour was determined using the Hunter Lab System ainolta colorimeter CR200TM model (Minolta Camera Cosaka, Japan). Following the recording of individualL* , a*

ndb* parameters, colour was expressed as Hue anglesults were the means of determination for each sweet clong the equatorial axis (n = 100).

.5. Firmness determination

For each fruit, texture was determined using a TA-Xexture Analyzer (Stable Microsystems, Godalming, U

nterfaced to a personal computer. Two different texarameters were evaluated: fruit firmness and traction

o stem removal. Fruit firmness was measured usingteel plate mounted on the machine.

The diameter was measured and then a force that ach2% deformation of the fruit diameter was applied. Resere expressed as the ratio between the force that ach

D. Martınez-Romero et al. / Postharvest Biology and Technology 39 (2006) 93–100 95

the 2% of fruit deformation and the fruit diameter (N mm−1).A bevelled holder prevented bruising of the opposite side.For stem traction force, a tensile grip was used to removethe stem and the results were expressed in N. For both cases,results were the means± S.E. of determinations made foreach individual fruit (n = 100).

2.6. Total soluble solids content and aciditydetermination

Total soluble solids concentration (TSS) was determinedin the juice from five individual fruit from each lot with adigital refractometer Atago PR-101 (Atago Co. Ltd., Japan)at 20◦C and results expressed as the means± S.E. of %TSS.The pH of the juice was recorded and then titratable acidity(TA) was determined by potentiometric titration with 0.1 NNaOH up to pH 8.1, using 1 ml of diluted juice in 25 mldistilled H2O and results were the means± S.E. expressed asgrams of malic acid equivalent per 100 g−1 fresh weight. Theratio between TSS and TA was also calculated (n = 25).

2.7. Sensory evaluation

Sensory analyses to compare the quality of treated andcontrol sweet cherries were carried out by 10 trained adults,aged 25–40 years (five female and five male). The panel wast elyl ch-i ted. Al fore ydra-t 1–5,w ence,3 own-i date,j h lot( wasmF h lot( ruitfi asedf nch-i y wasc f 1–5( gh,a ursw ed fort est.B withd mpleu

2

t thee am-

ples (free of stones) of 10 g, which were homogenized in90 ml of sterile peptone water using a stomacher (ModelSeward, Laboratory Blender Stomacher 400, London, UK).Serial dilutions with the same dilutent were carried out andthe media used were plate count agar for mesophilic aerobicand for yeast and mould counts (PetrifilmTM Aerobic CountPlate, Laboratories 3MTM Sante, France). Samples were pre-pared in triplicate and only counts of 30–300 colony formingunits (CFU) were considered. The same procedure was car-ried out in recently harvested sweet cherries (day 0). All plateswere incubated for 3 days at 30◦C.

2.9. Statistical analysis

Data for the physical, chemical and sensory parameterswere subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA). Sources ofvariation were time of storage and treatments, and the interac-tion treatment× storage. Mean comparisons were performedusing HSD the Tukey’s test to examine if differences betweentreatments and storage time were significant atP < 0.05. Allanalyses were performed with SPSS software package v. 11.0for windows.

3. Results and discussion

3

m erryf edo con-taS oughlt esed colds pira-tc t lossi L ofs n inA olft siw eingd at1

res-p inedw osi-t hiche eenf nce

rained in a pre-test in which sweet cherries with extremow or high attributes (visual aspect, fruit firmness, crunness, juiciness, sweetness and sourness) were evaluaaboratory of sensory analyses with an individual boothach panellist was used. For stems, symptoms of deh

ion and browning were evaluated on a ranked scale ofhere 5 = absence of these symptoms, 4 = slight occurr= moderate, 2 = severe, and l = extremely severe br

ng and dehydration. For each treatment and samplingudges were served with two sweet cherries from eacn = 100). The second test and detection of off-flavoursade after 16 days of cold storage plus 1 day at 20◦C.or this test, each judge evaluated one fruit from eac

n = 50) for the following characteristics: visual aspect, frmness, sweetness, juiciness (amount of free fluid relerom the sweet cherry during chewing), sourness and cruness (amount of noise generated when the sweet cherrhewed at a fast rate with the back teeth), on a scale oranked), where l = very low, 2 = low, 3 = medium, 4 = hind 5 = very high. Finally, the occurrence of off-flavoas also tested. For this purpose, judges were screen

heir capacity in perceiving off-flavours using a triangle triefly, panellists were instructed to cleanse their mouthistilled water, chew the sweet cherry and evaluate the sasing the binary response of yes or no.

.8. Microbiological analysis

Five sweet cherries from each lot were sampled and of the experiment to obtain under sterile conditions s

.1. Respiration rate and weight loss

The CO2 production rate at harvest was 860± 22mol kg−1 h−1, which decreased sharply when sweet ch

ruit were transferred at 1◦C, but then significantly increasver cold storage, although this increase was higher inrol than inAloe-treated fruit, with final levels of 1024± 23nd 636± 48 mmol kg−1 h−1, respectively (Fig. 1). DuringL after cold storage, respiration rates increased, alth

ower values of CO2 production were also obtained forAloe-reated sweet cherries compared with control fruit, thifferences being greater than those obtained duringtorage. Thus, after 16 days of cold storage + SL, resion rates were 2004± 112 and 840± 20 mmol kg−1 h−1 forontrol and treated sweet cherries, respectively. Weighncreased during both cold storage and subsequent Sweet cherries, but was significantly greater in control thaloe-treated fruit (Fig. 2). At the end of cold storage, contr

ruit lost 6.20± 0.15% while the loss of weight inAloe-reated sweet cherries was 3.82± 0.29%. The weight losncreased after the subsequent SL, althoughA. vera coatingas effective in delaying weight loss, the percentage bouble in control than inAloe-treated fruit after 16 days◦C plus 1 day at 20◦C.

A. vera gel retarded the moisture loss and reducediration rates, these effects being similar to those obtaith other edible coatings. The mechanism for these p

ive effects is based on their hygroscopic properties, wnables formation of a barrier to water diffusion betw

ruit and environment, thus avoiding its external transfere

96 D. Martınez-Romero et al. / Postharvest Biology and Technology 39 (2006) 93–100

Fig. 1. Respiration rate (mmol CO2 kg−1 h−1) during cold storage and a subsequent 1 day at 20◦C (shelf life, SL) of control andAloe vera-coated cherry. Dataare the mean± S.E.

(Morillon et al., 2002). Thereafter, composite coatings ofpolysaccharide-lipid are known to increase water barrier effi-cacy with increased lipid content and in turn more reductionsof weight loss could be achieved (Perez-Gago et al., 2002).However,A. vera gel, the composition of which is mainlypolysaccharides (Ni et al., 2004), was highly effective as amoisture barrier without the lipid incorporation. The reduc-tion of CO2 production has been also observed in avocadocoated with methyl cellulose (Maftoonazad and Ramaswamy,2005) and in sweet cherry with coats based on derivatives offatty acids and polysaccharides (Alonso and Alique, 2004).

3.2. Sweet cherry quality parameters

The main colour changes were observed for Hue angle,which diminished during cold storage and subsequent SL(Fig. 3). However, significant differences were found between

control andAloe-treated fruit, since maintenance of Hueangle was observed during the first 13 days of cold storagein those sweet cherries coated withA. vera, while a sharpreduction was shown for the control. During SL, even greaterdifferences were detected between control andAloe-treatedsweet cherries, with values of 13.83± 0.13 and 16.94± 0.12,respectively, after 13 days of cold storage + SL. With respectto firmness,A. vera treatment was also effective in main-taining sweet cherry firmness, since no significant changeswere observed in treated sweet cherries from the levels atharvest (1.38± 0.05 N mm−1) either during cold storage orsubsequent SL, while an accelerated softening process wasshown in control fruit, with values of 1.02± 0.03 N mm−1 atthe end of the cold storage (Fig. 4). Similarly, the determina-tion of the traction force needed for stem removal revealedthat the necessary force remained unchanged in treated sweetcherry during 13 days of cold storage from data at harvest

F uent 1 hem

ig. 2. Percentage of weight loss during cold storage and a subseqean± S.E.

day at 20◦C (shelf life, SL) of control andAloe vera-coated cherry. Data are t

D. Martınez-Romero et al. / Postharvest Biology and Technology 39 (2006) 93–100 97

Fig. 3. Skin colour changes (Hue angle) during cold storage and a subsequent 1 day at 20◦C (shelf life, SL) in control andAloe vera-coated cherry. Data arethe mean± S.E.

(5.50± 0.28 N). However, this force decreased sharply asstorage advanced in control fruit, for both cold storage andsubsequent SL, reaching the lowest values (≈2.70 N) at theend of both periods (data not shown). TSS and TA at har-vest were 15.37± 0.57% and 0.91% tartaric acid equivalent,and the TSS/TA ratio was 16.85± 1.14. This ratio slightlyincreased in both control andAloe-treated fruit during coldstorage, reaching values of 24.15± 1.68 and 20.75± 1.22,respectively (Fig. 5). Contrarily, a significant sharp increasewas observed in control fruit from day 9 + SL, with final levelsof 46.87± 2.56, while no significant changes were detectedwhen treated sweet cherries were transferred at 20◦C.

It is widely accepted that the most important parame-ters determining sweet cherry acceptability by consumers are

bright red colour, firmness, and the ratio between TSS and TA(Crisosto et al., 2003). Colour changes during sweet cherryripening are correlated to the anthocyanin content (Mozeticet al., 2004; Serrano et al., 2005a). Hue angle diminishedsharply in control fruit after cold storage and subsequent SL,showing the aspect of over-ripe fruit, which is considereddetrimental, with the colour redder and darker. Contrarily,Aloe-treated sweet cherries maintained the typical red brightcolour of recently harvested fruit even after 13 days of coldstorage + SL.

The softening process in sweet cherries has been reportedto be dependent on the increase in polygalacturonase, ß-galactosidase and pectinmethylesterase activities (Batisse etal., 1996; Gerardi et al., 2001; Remon et al., 2003), being

F equent ret

ig. 4. Fruit firmness changes (N mm−1) during cold storage and a subshe mean± S.E.

1 day at 20◦C (shelf life, SL) in control andAloe vera-coated cherry. Data a

98 D. Martınez-Romero et al. / Postharvest Biology and Technology 39 (2006) 93–100

Fig. 5. Change in◦Brix/acidity ratio during cold storage and a subsequent 1 day at 20◦C (shelf life, SL) in control andAloe vera-coated cherry. Data are themean± S.E.

responsible for fruit quality loss.A. vera treatment signifi-cantly reduced the firmness losses (more than 50%) duringcold storage + SL compared with control fruit. The expla-nation for the sweet cherry firmness maintenance could berelated to the lower weight losses, as has been reported instrawberry (Mali and Grossmann, 2003; Del-Valle et al.,2005), apple (Moldao-Martins et al., 2003), and sweet cherrytreated with different edible coatings (Yaman and Bayindirh,2002). In addition, some effect ofA. vera gel on the reduc-tion of cell wall degrading-enzymes responsible for sweetcherry softening could not be discarded. These results showbeneficial effects of theAloe coating on increasing the sweetcherry SL, since it has been postulated that fruit softeningand texture changes during sweet cherry storage determinefruit storability and shelf life, as well as reduced incidence ofdecay and less susceptibility to mechanical damage (Batisseet al., 1996; Vidrih et al., 1998).

The coating withA. vera led to a lower increase in theTSS:TA ratio, which indicates that control fruit presented amore pronounced ripening development than coated sweetcherries, similarly to that found in starch-coated strawberry(Mali and Grossmann, 2003), and could be related to thehigher respiration rate found in uncoated fruit. In addition,the Aloe coating could produce a modification of the inter-nal atmosphere, showing similar effects to sweet cherry fruitunder MAP conditions (Serrano et al., 2005b). The reducedr thec ive oft

3

andg rries,w old

storage compared with treated fruit, these differences beinggreater during the subsequent periods of SL (Fig. 6). Theseresults indicated moderate-severe symptoms of dehydrationand browning in control stems after 9 days at 1◦C + SL(scores < 3) and slight for those stems treated withA. veragel even at the last sampling date. Stem browning is typicallydeveloped during sweet cherry storage as has been associ-ated with fruit ripening (Clayton et al., 2003), and also due todehydration (Schick and Toivonen, 2002). Thus, the effect ofA. vera coating in delaying the loss of quality of stems couldbe attributed to its effect on the inhibition of water diffusionand in turn, stem desiccation and browning.

During the chain of production, storage and retailing,sweet cherry fruit appearance is used to judge the overallquality. In our experiment, the highest scores for sweet cherryvisual aspect were given to theAloe-treated fruit comparedwith the control after 16 days of cold storage plus 1 dayat 20◦C (Fig. 7). Thus,A. vera gel imparted an attractivenatural-looking sheen to the sweet cherry fruit, quite close tothe freshly harvested fruit. The visual aspect of the fruit isusually correlated to the overall quality, as has been observedin sweet cherry, since the results obtained for fruit firm-ness, crunchiness, juiciness, sweetness and sourness weresignificantly higher inAloe-treated fruit compared with con-trol. In addition, judges did not perceive development of“off-flavours” in sweet cherries as a consequence ofAloet

3

erryw ica es int of4 lus 1

ipening index was related to maintenance of TA whileontent of TSS was unchanged along storage irrespectreatments.

.3. Sensory analyses

Panellists evaluated the visual aspect of the stemave the lowest scores to those of control sweet chehich became significantly different from day 9 of c

reatment.

.4. Microbial population

Total viable counts in recently harvested sweet chere 3.6 and 1.8 log CFU g−1 for total mesophilic aerobnd yeast and mould, respectively. Significant increas

hese populations occurred in control fruit, with counts.7 and 3.1, respectively, after 16 days of cold storage p

D. Martınez-Romero et al. / Postharvest Biology and Technology 39 (2006) 93–100 99

Fig. 6. Scores for visual aspect of stems during cold storage and a subsequent 1 day at 20◦C (shelf life, SL) of control andAloe vera-coated cherry. Data arethe mean± S.E.

day at 20◦C. On the contrary, microbial populations were sig-nificantly reduced inAloe-treated sweet cherries, with totalviable counts of 2.0 and 1.2 log CFU for mesophilic aerobicsand yeast and moulds, respectively.

The antifungal activity ofA. vera has been reported againstpostharvest fruit pathogens, such asPenicillium digitatum,

F2m

P. expansum, B. cinerea andAlternaria alternata (Jasso deRodrıguez et al., 2005) and was based on the suppression ofgermination and the inhibition of mycelial growth. In addi-tion, the inhibitory effects of severalAloe extracts have beenalso found onAspergillus niger, Cladosporium herbarumandFusarium moniliforme, and could be attributed mainlyto the presence ofAloe-emodin and aloenin together withother active compounds (Ali et al., 1999), although the spe-cific mechanism of action is still unknown. Moreover, thereduction of the growth of 17 bacteria byA. vera gel hasbeen proven (Reynolds and Dweck, 1999), being more effec-tive against gram positive than gram negative microorganisms(Ferro et al., 2003). Some individual components found inA.vera gel, such as saponins, acemannan and anthraquinonesderivatives, are known to have antibiotic activity, and couldbe responsible for its antibacterial activity.

In conclusion, to our knowledge this is the first time thatA. vera gel, applied as edible coating in fruit, has beneficialeffects in retarding the ripening process. This treatment waseffective as a physical barrier and thus reduced the weight lossand lowered the respiration rate during postharvest storage.In addition,A. vera gel delayed colour changes, softeningand TA losses, maintaining fruit quality. These results wereconfirmed by the sensory analyses and the reduction of bothmesophilic aerobics and yeast and mould counts. In future,confirmation of this novel coating efficacy in other fruit willba m-m

A

ig. 7. Scores for sensory analysis at day 16 of storage at 1◦C + 1 day at0◦C (shelf life, SL) of control andAloe vera-coated cherry. Data are theean± S.E.

Sci-e ALIa

e necessary to gain a better knowledge aboutA. vera gelctivity on preserving fruit quality and safety for future coercial purposes.

cknowledgements

This work has been co-funded by Spanish Ministry ofnce and Technology through project AGL2003-03257/nd European Commission with FEDER funds.

100 D. Martınez-Romero et al. / Postharvest Biology and Technology 39 (2006) 93–100

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