Effect Of Chitosan Coating On Postharvest Quality And Enzymatic Activity Of Eggplant (Solanum Melongena L.) Cultivars

Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.), an important fruit vegetable exhibits very limited postharvest marketability, particularly due to rapid moisture loss. This study assessed the variation due to chitosan coating on different eggplant cultivars (purple long, purple round, and white long). Fruit were coated with chitosan (1%) and stored at 10 +/- 2 degrees C. The chitosan-coated purple round cultivars (BR-14 and PR-5) had minimum weight loss and polyphenol oxidase (PPO) and peroxidase (POD) activity than long cultivars (Kashi Taru, IVBL-22, and Kashi Himani), while the functional quality (anthocyanins, total phenolics, and flavonoids) of long cultivars was higher. Chitosan was effective in minimizing weight loss by about two fold and retained higher flavonoids by about 1.2-2.3 fold over uncoated fruit in different eggplant cultivars. Chitosan-coated round (PR-5 and BR-14) and long (Kashi Himani, IVBL-22, and Kashi Taru) cultivars showed an increase in storability by 8 and 6 days, respectively, over uncoated fruit.Practical Applications The coating of eggplants with chitosan is an easy to use, effective, economical, and biologically safe technique to enhance the postharvest keeping quality of eggplants. It can be employed in the postharvest supply chain to maintain quality and extend marketability of eggplants.