Effects of chitosan treatment on the storability and quality properties of longan fruit during storage

Effects of various concentrations of Kadozan (chitosan) treatment on storability and quality properties of harvested 'Fuyan' longans were investigated. Compared to the control samples, Kadozan treated-longans displayed lower fruit respiration rate, lower pericarp cell membrane permeability, pericarp browning index, pulp breakdown index, fruit disease index, and weight loss, but higher rate of commercially acceptable fruit, higher levels of pericarp chlorophyll, carotenoid, anthocyanin, flavonoid and total phenolics, higher amounts of pulp total soluble sugar, sucrose, total soluble solids, and vitamin C. These results revealed Kadozan treatment could increase storability and retain better quality of harvested longan fruit. Among different concentrations of Kadozan, the dilution of 1:500 (VKadozan: VKadozan + Water) showed the best results in storability and maintained the best quality of longans during storage. These findings demonstrated that Kadozan could be a facile and eco-friendly postharvest handling approach for increasing storability and lengthening shelf-life of harvested 'Fuyan' longan fruit.