Effect of chitosan coating on postharvest life and quality of plum during storage at low temperature

•Chitosan coating @ 2% was applied on 'Santa Rosa' plums for extension of the storage life.•Physical, physiological and chemical attributes were recorded at 7 days interval.•Chitosan coating effectively maintained quality and enhanced the storage life of plums up to 35 days at 1 ± 1 °C.

The effect of chitosan coating on the storage life and quality of 'Santa Rosa' plum was investigated. The plum fruits were treated with 2% chitosan coating and stored at 1 ± 1 °C under 90 ± 5% RH. During storage, observations on weight loss, fruit firmness, colour, rates of respiration and ethylene evolution, biochemical and quality attributes were recorded at weekly interval. Our experiment yielded that chitosan had a significant effect in maintaining fruit firmness (∼78%), retarding weight loss (∼52%), respiration and ethylene evolution rates and delaying the colour change as compared to non-coated fruits. Furthermore, at the end of 35 days of storage at low temperature, a significant reduction in pectin methylesterase activity (∼44%) and malondialdehyde production (∼21%) was observed. Similarly, anthocyanin content (∼24%) was significantly retarded in chitosan-coated 'Santa Rosa' plums. Thus, postharvest application of chitosan as an edible coating can effectively maintain the quality and extend the storage life of plum up to 35 days under low temperature storage condition.