Authors Yora Faramitha, Fitria Febriyanti, Tiana Fitrilia, Firda Dimawarnita
Red chili pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) is a high demand horticultural commodity but is vulnerable to quality deterioration. Postharvest losses of red chilies are strongly related to the metabolic activities and high-water content of harvested chilies. After harvesting, red chilies undergo both respiration and withering processes that cause the shelf life of chilies to be relatively short. Besides, red chilies are vulnerable to spoilage by fungi and bacteria that cause postharvest shrinkage during storage. Colletotrichum capsici is a fungus commonly found in chilies. For those reasons, postharvest treatments are needed to preserve and prolong the shelf life of red chilies. One of the promising preservation techniques to prolong the shelf-life of perishable agricultural products is edible coating application. Compared to cold storage technology, the edible coating requires a zero-energy cooling system. The edible coating applied on fruit surface serve as a semipermeable barrier to minimize water loss and respiration and prevent microbial and fungus infection. Chilies are sensitive to chilling injuries due to low-temperature storage (< 7"C), application of edible coating can be a safe and affordable preserving alternative to maintain the quality attributes of red chilies. The sources of edible coating material vary, including polysaccharides, lipids, proteins, or resins. The well-known edible coating source is chitosan, which a type of polysaccharides. Chitosan has excellent properties, mainly has high antimicrobial activity and biocompatibility, and is non-toxic. Besides, the chitosan-based edible coating forms a semipermeable film that limits water losses and the transpiration process, extending fruits storability. Some recent studies reported the application of chitosan on blueberries, strawberries, and chilies. Another coating material with exceptional barrier properties is Aloe vera gel, which is biologically safe, has antimicrobial action, and delays the deterioration of fruits and vegetables. In this last decade, some applications of A. vera gel-based coating were on fresh cut kiwi fruit, strawberry, fresh-cut papaya. The combination of more than one edible coating source gained more interest to improve edible coatings' effectiveness and stability. Coating from the combination of chitosan and gelatin on red bell peppers could significantly reduce the microbial decay incidence compared to gelatin-based coating treatment, enhance the fruit firmness, and improve the shelf-life during storage. Edible coating from chitosan-A. vera liquid fraction could inhibit the microbial growth up to 50% and extend the life span of blueberries for approximately five days. These previous studies imply that combining two or more coating sources could improve the physicochemical properties of fruits better than a single source. To our knowledge, the application of A. vera gel and chitosan combination as an edible coating on red chilies has not been studied before. Therefore, this present work was intended to evaluate the effect of chitosan and A. vera based coating formulations on quality attributes of red chilies after 15 days of storage at room temperature and choose the recommended chitosan-A. vera formulation to preserve the quality of red chilies.
