Background: Strawberries have become famous all over the world due to their quality of sensory appeal, vitamins, polyphenols, and antioxidant activity. They are however highly perishable post harvests with shelf life of only 3-7 days at refrigerated condition. High metabolic activity: A high transpiration and respiration rate leads to weight loss, tissue shrinkage and rapid softening. Fungal susceptibility: Susceptibility to phytopathogenic fungi (e.g., Botrytis cinerea or gray mold, molds and yeasts). Formulate an active edible coating with different concentrations of thyme EO in chitosan polymer matrix and calculate the limit of the extended shelf-life period and sensory acceptance of the treated (control) fruit.
Materials: Coating Solutions – Low/medium molecular weight chitosan (1–2% w/v) Preparation – Chitosan Matrix – Chitosan is dissolved in dilute acetic acid (0.5–1% v/v) with constant stirring until completely dissolved. Glycerol or Tween-80 is used as a plasticizer/emulsifier. Essential Oil Incorporation: Thyme Essential Oil (TEO) is incorporated into the product at different concentrations (0.1-1.5% v/v) and homogenized (or sonicated) into a stable emulsion.
Result: Incorporating Thyme Essential Oil into Chitosan edible coatings is an effective, eco-friendly postharvest technology for fresh strawberries. The composite coating acts as a dual physical and antimicrobial barrier that doubles the commercial shelf life of fresh strawberries (from ∼7 days to up to 15 days under refrigeration) while significantly lowering decay rates. effectively preserves critical postharvest quality attributes, including firmness, color, Vitamin C, and antioxidant capacity.
Conclusions: The chitosan coatings containing thyme essential oil (CS-TEO) are a promising and environmentally friendly method for preserving strawberries. The composite coating has a dual effect as a physical barrier and an antimicrobial barrier, inhibiting fungal decay and limiting gas exchange, thus maintaining important quality parameters and increasing the refrigerated shelf life from 7 to 15 days.