Management of postharvest decay of strawberies by using natural compounds

Postharvest losses of fruit and vegetables amounted up to half of the production through the chain from the field to the customer table. Therefore, the investigations on sustainable approaches to minimize postharvest decay and food losses would be the goal of research in the next years. In order to reduce the presence of pathogens, the application of chemical fungicides was used, however, due to potential environmental and health issues, this practice need to be evaluated carefully. Alternative approaches such as the use of edible coatings, essential oils (EOs), salts, and natural compounds (plant extracts) were emerging technologies to manage postharvest decay of fresh fruit. The aim of this work was to investigate the effectiveness of natural compounds known as plant defense inducers on postharvest decay. In the first work, we used the meta-analyses approach to investigate the potential effect of 1% chitosan on postharvest fungal pathogens, summarizing 13 years of data related to disease incidence, mycelium growth of Botrytis cinerea, Rhizopus stolonifer, Penicillium spp., Colletotrichum spp., Alternaria spp. and the activity of enzymes linked to host defense mechanisms. This meta-analysis confirmed chitosan antimicrobial and eliciting activity. The other works were focused on testing, the effectiveness of the control of postharvest decay of strawberry following the application of commercial compounds, mainly chitosan-based coating and plants essential oils. The preharvest application of (‘Chito Plant powder’,’KiForce’ ‘Prev-Am Plus’ compounds) and postharvest application of (‘Chito Plant powder’, ‘Chito Plant solution’, ‘Kaitosol’, ‘OII-YS’, ‘MeJA’, ‘3 Logy’, ‘DF-100 Forte’, ‘Prev-Am Plus’, ‘Humic acid’ compounds and bergamot, rosemary, mentha EOs, combine under hypobaric environment at 50 kPa, were tested. Gray mold, caused by B. cinerea, and Rhizopus rot, caused by R. stolonifer, were monitored after incubating fruits at 20±1 °C or 7 day storage at 4±1 °C following two days shelf life at 20±1 °C. Besides, the changes of qualitative parameters in preharvest application was analyzed. Our results showed the effectiveness of the different compounds on strawberry decay, however, among the chitosan-based coating ‘Chito Plant powder’ was the most effective compound at both pre and postharvest application at cold storage condition and in maintaining fruit quality. Rosemary and mentha EOs, combine under hypobaric environment, and sweet orange EOs with commercial formulation Prev-Am Plus following grapefruit seed extract EOs with commercial formulation DF-100Forte were the most effective compounds against gray mold infection at room temperature. Our results showed that the application of these innovative compounds was a suitable approach for strawberry postharvest decay management.

Le perdite post-raccolta di frutta e verdura ammontavano fino alla metà della produzione attraverso la catena dal campo alla tavola del cliente. Pertanto, le indagini su approcci sostenibili per ridurre al minimo il decadimento post-raccolta e le perdite alimentari sarebbero l'obiettivo della ricerca nei prossimi anni. Al fine di ridurre la presenza di agenti patogeni, è stata utilizzata l'applicazione di fungicidi chimici, tuttavia, a causa di potenziali problemi ambientali e sanitari, questa pratica deve essere valutata attentamente