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Pakistan’s fresh produce market has significance worldwide that can contribute to improving the social and economic status of the country. But due to improper handling and transportation postharvest losses of fruits and vegetables are up to 20-50%. To address this main issue an innovative edible coating based on aloevera gel was used as a post-harvest preservation technique in place of other chemical based treatments to conserve quality and safety aspects of tomatoes. Tomatoes are productive and protective in term of economical and nutritional importance. The objectives of this study were to develop and optimize an aloevera gel-based edible coating that acts as a bio preservative and to study the effect of storage, temperature and functional components of aloevera on physicochemical parameters related to tomato quality and safety and also to boost the nutritional quality and shelf life of coated tomatoes. For this purpose, an edible coating from aloevera was developed, analyzed and applied on tomatoes. There were five treatments (Ao, A20, A40, A60, A80) varying in aloevera gel concentration from 0% to 80%. Aloevera gel-based edible coating was analyzed for its antimicrobial and antioxidant potential. Immersion method was adopted to apply the coating solution on tomatoes. Hence, the inclusive impact on quality and safety aspects of tomatoes was determined by changing aloevera gel concentration. Samples carrying different percentages of aloevera gel were analyzed for their compositional (antioxidants, sugar, ascorbic acid, TSS, total phenols, minerals, pectin, carotenoids, flavonoids, lycopene, volatiles), physiochemical (pH, acidity, color, decay %, fruit disease index, physiological loss in weight, fruit size, rate of fruit spoilage, respiration rate, ethylene production), textural (hardness, firmness), microbiological (total plate count, coliforms, Botrytis cineria), toxicological (hemolytic test, Ames test), microstructural, coating gel efficiency (homogeneity, coating thickness, wettability, microstructure) and sensory analysis during a storage period of 30 days at 13°C with an interval of 10 days. All analyses were performed in triplicate and statistical analyses were conducted. Results revealed that treatment, storage and their interaction had highly significant effects on keeping quality of tomatoes. It was observed that coating with 80% and 60% aloevera gel had shown the best results and maintained overall quality, safety, sensory and nutritional characteristics of coated tomatoes. On the other hand, control sample shows fast ripening and deteriorated in just 10 to 15 days of storage while the shelf life of coated tomatoes was extended up to 30 days. Percent weight loss of the control treatment was 20% as compared to the A80 treatment where it was only 4%. Only a 0.4% percent change in size was observed in the A80 treatment as compared to a 13% size modification in A0. Control treatment showed 92% decay at 30th day while 7.69% decay was observed in tomatoes coated with 80% aloevera gel. A significant decrease in acidity value of control tomatoes was observed from 4.56 to 4.28. Color changes were more abrupt in A0 up to 31.69% as compared to A80 having 19.73% changes. Percent decrease in firmness was higher in A0 at 37% while it was 11.46% in A80. Microstructural analysis showed that coating tomatoes with coating solution having 40% aloevera gel gave uniformity and continuity on the surface of tomatoes. Compositional and nutritional analyses revealed that the nutritional status of tomatoes was stable in the cases of the A80 and A60 treatments, but visual aspects of the A40 treatment was best as revealed by sensory analysis. It can be concluded from the results that an aloevera gel-based edible coating formulation with a higher percentage of aloevera gel was very capable of extending shelf life of tomatoes and thus should be used commercially as a technologically viable post-harvest preservation technique.
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