Postharvest Application of Gum Arabic and Essential Oils for Controlling Anthracnose Disease and Quality of Banana

Chen, Wei Yik (2021) Postharvest Application of Gum Arabic and Essential Oils for Controlling Anthracnose Disease and Quality of Banana. Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

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Abstract

Anthracnose disease caused by Colletotrichum musae on bananas leads to spoilage of bananas. It caused serious postharvest losses and was difficult to control due to latent infection. Therefore, this review article summarized the alternative method, by using essential oils to delay the anthracnose disease on bananas. Research proved that banana anthracnose could be controlled using volatile compounds in the essential oils by delaying the infection and disease progress. Various essential oils of cinnamon, lemon grass, basil, rosemary, thyme, lavender, mint, and grapefruit were reviewed for their effectiveness in suppressing anthracnose fungus. Treatment of cinnamon, thyme, and clove essential oils showed efficient antifungal effects at minimum concentration of 0.05% (v/v). Untreated bananas start to show symptoms at 7th days of storage in ambient temperature but essential oil treatment can delay this symptom appearance to more than 15 days. However, volatile compounds in the essential oils with antifungal properties will be lost after 20 days in ambient condition. Thus, solutions are being sought to prolong the effectiveness of the essential oils by containing the volatile compounds with additional coating of gum arabic. A good quality control of banana is achieved by lower percentage of weight loss, greater firmness, lower soluble solids concentrate (SSC), and higher titratable acidity (TA). It has been shown that an extra coating film together with essential oil on the banana surface will create a better-quality control of the banana by lowering the weight loss and providing greater firmness. Gum arabic is chosen as the coating material due to their edible nature with health benefits. A combination of gum arabic and essential oils sum up the benefits of each other and lead to better quality control of bananas. This review article summarized that coating of banana with around 10% w/v gum arabic and essential oils can delay the anthracnose disease and also maintain the postharvest storage quality of the banana.