Scientia Horticulturae 144 (2012) 172178

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Scientia Horticulturae
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Effects of chitosan coating on postharvest life and quality of guava

(Psidium guajava L.) fruit during cold storage
Keqian Hong 1 , Jianghui Xie 1 , Lubin Zhang, Dequan Sun, Deqiang Gong
Key Laboratory for Postharvest Physiology and Technology of Tropical Horticultural Products of Hainan Province, South Subtropical Crops Research Institutes, Chinese Academy of
Tropical Agricultural Sciences, Zhanjiang 524091, Peoples Republic of China

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 9 April 2012
Received in revised form 21 June 2012
Accepted 3 July 2012
Keywords:
Chitosan coating
Guava
Antioxidant
Ripening

a b s t r a c t
The effect of chitosan coating on physiochemical characteristics of pearl guava fruit was investigated.
The fruit were treated with 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0% chitosan coatings, respectively, and then stored at 11 C and
9095% RH. Treatment with 2.0% chitosan signicantly reduced rmness and weight loss, delayed changes
in chlorophyll and malondialdehyde (MDA) contents and soluble solids content (SSC), and retarded the
loss of titratable acidity (TA) and vitamin C during 12 days of storage. This treatment could induce a
signicant increase in the activities of peroxidase (POD), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT),
and inhibited superoxide free radical (O2 ) production. It was suggested that effects of chitosan on
increase of antioxidant ability might be benecial in delaying ripening process in guava fruit during cold
storage.
2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Guava (Psidium guajava L.) is an important subtropical fruit
grown widely in tropical and subtropical regions of the world
including China. It is a highly palatable fruit with a rich source of
vitamin C (Pal et al., 2004). However, harvested guava can exhibit a
high respiration rate and fast ripening that leads to perishable during storage periods. Therefore, it is urgent to nd a feasible solution
to reduce decay incidence and improve fruit quality of guava after
harvest.
Chitosan, a high molecular weight cationic polysaccharide, is
soluble in dilute organic acids, and could theoretically be used as a
preservative coating material for fruit (Jiang et al., 2005). Furthermore, chitosan has great potentialities as a biodegradable, edible
coating or lm in food packing (Arvanitoyannis, 1999), exhibits
excellent biocompatibility, nontoxicity (Jayakumar et al., 2005;
Prabaharan and Mano, 2006) and also possesses lm-forming and
barrier properties (Arvanitoyannis et al., 1998), thus making it
a potential raw material for edible lms or coatings. Previous
researches proved that application of chitosan coating had been
shown to improve the storability of several perishable fruits, such
as strawberry (El Ghaouth et al., 1991a), tomato (El Ghaouth et al.,
1992), litchi (Zhang and Quantick, 1997), longan (Jiang and Li,
2001), peach (Li and Yu, 2001), mango (Kittur et al., 2001) and table

Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 759 2858198; fax: +86 759 2859124.
E-mail address: gd-qiang@163.com (D. Gong).
1
These authors contributed equally to this work.
0304-4238/$ see front matter 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scienta.2012.07.002

grape (Romanazzi et al., 2002). In addition, numerous researches

have clearly demonstrated that chitosan can be used as an effective
preservative for improvement of quality and shelf life of various
fruits (Kittur et al., 2001; Dong et al., 2004; Chien et al., 2007; Meng
et al., 2008). For example, chitosan coating could extend postharvest life of longan fruit and maintain their quality (Jiang and Li,
2001), and similar results were obtained in papayas and litchis
coated with chitosan (Ali et al., 2011; Lin et al., 2011).
Previous studies have indicated that fresh-cut guava coated
with chitosan delayed weight loss and increase of soluble solids
content (SSC), while it did not have any signicant effect on rmness and titratable acidity (TA) reduction compared to the control
(Thommohaway et al., 2007). However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no report on the use of chitosan coatings to maintain
the quality and extend the storage life of guava fruit. Therefore,
the objective of our research was to assess the potential effects
of chitosan coatings on the extension of the storage life of pearl
guava fruit, and also to investigate the inuence of different concentrations of chitosan coatings on the postharvest life and quality
attributes of them during low temperature storage.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Fruit materials
Guava fruit, cv. Pearl were harvested at 80% maturity (green
stage) from an orchard in south subtropical crops research institute,
Guangdong Province, China. Fruit were selected for uniformity of
size and color, and blemished and diseased fruit were discarded.

K. Hong et al. / Scientia Horticulturae 144 (2012) 172178

2.2. Preparation of chitosan solutions

Preparation of chitosan solutions was according to the method
of Jiang and Li (2001). Chitosan (MW: 50190 kDa, degree of
deacetylation 75%) was purchased from Sigma-Aldrich Corp (St.
Louis, MO, USA). To prepare 500 mL of 0, 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0% (w/v) chitosan solution, accurate weight of 0, 2.5, 5.0 and 10.0 g of chitosan
was dispersed in 50 mL of galacial acetic acid, respectively, before
400 mL of ddH2 O was added to dissolve further the chitosan. Then,
the solution was added with 1 mL Tween 80 to improve the wettability. The pH of the solution was adjusted to pH 6.0 with 1 M NaOH
and the solution made up to 500 mL.
2.3. Treatment
Guavas were randomly distributed into four groups of 100 fruit
per group. Fruit of group 1, group 2, group 3 and group 4 were
dipped into solutions of 0 (control), 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0% chitosan for
1 min, respectively. Fruit were allowed to dry for 30 min at room
temperature and placed into unsealed plastic bags (0.04 mm thick)
and each bag contained 5 individual fruit with 20 bags per group,
and then stored in four incubators (Sanyo MIR 553 Model, Gunma,
Japan) held at 11 C (with 9095% RH) for progressive assessments.
As storage at 11 C showed the best quality of guava fruit pulp (data
unpublished), the temperature was chosen to be used in this study.
All assessments were conducted with three replicates.
2.4. Measurement of fruit rmness, weight loss, chlorophyll and
MDA contents
Firmness of pulp was measured using a handheld penetrometer
(FT-327; UC Fruit Firmness Tester, Milano, Italy), equipped with
an 8-mm plunger tip, at the equator of fruit where a section of
rind (4 4 cm and 1 cm deep) had been removed and results were
expressed in (kg cm2 ). Three readings were taken for each guava.
Weight loss was calculated by the following formula:
(A B)/A 100, where A is the fruit weight just before storage and
B is the fruit weight after special storage period.
Chlorophyll content was determined by the method of Sheen
(1973). Peel tissue (0.5 g) was homogenized with 85% acetone, and
absorbance of the extract in a nal volume of 5 mL was recorded at
644 and 663 nm by using a spectrophotometer (UV755B, Shanghai,
China).
MDA content was measured according to Liu et al. (2006). Fruit
pulp (2.0 g) was homogenized in 6 mL of 10% trichloroacetic acid
and then centrifuged for 15 min at 10,000 g. The supernatant
phase was collected and 2 mL was mixed with 6 mL of 0.6% thiobarbituric acid. The mixture was heated to 100 C for 20 min, quickly
cooled and centrifuged at 10,000 g for 10 min. The supernatant
was collected and used to measure absorbance at 450, 532 and
600 nm. The MDA concentration was calculated according to the
formula: 6.45 (A532 A600 ) 0.56 A450 . Each assessment was
repeated three times.

173

in the supernatant was determined by the dinitrophenylhydrazine

method of Terada et al. (1978).
2.6. Measurement of enzyme activity
In each treatment, 10 g esh from 10 fruit was collected and
homogenized in 25 mL of ice-cold extraction buffer and 0.5 g
polyvinyl polypyrrolidone (PVPP) with a Kinematica tissue grinder
(Crl-6010, Kriens-LU, Switzerland). For CAT and SOD assays, the
extraction buffer was 50 mM sodium phosphate (pH 7.8). For
POD, 100 mM sodium phosphate buffer (pH 6.4) was used. The
homogenate was centrifuged at 27,000 g for 50 min at 4 C and
the resulting supernatants were used directly for assay.
Determination of CAT and SOD activities was performed by the
method of Wang et al. (2005).
For CAT, the reaction mixture consisted of 2.8 mL H2 O2 (40 mM,
in 50 mM sodium phosphate buffer, pH 7.0) and 0.2 mL enzyme
extract. The decomposition of H2 O2 was measured by the decline
in absorbance at 240 nm during 120 s. The specic activity was
expressed as U g1 , where one unit of catalase converts l mol of
H2 O2 per mass of fresh fruit pulp per min at 30 C.
For SOD, the reaction mixture (3 mL) contained 65 mM sodium
phosphate buffer (pH 7.8), 13 mM methionine, 75 M nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT), 10 M EDTA, 2 M riboavin and 0.1 mL
of the enzyme extract. The mixtures were illuminated by light
(60 mol m2 s1 ) for 10 min and the absorbance was then determined at 560 nm. Identical solutions held in the dark served as
blank. SOD activity was expressed as U g1 , where one unit was
dened as the amount of enzyme that caused a 50% decrease of the
SOD inhibitable NBT reduction per mass of fruit pulp per hour.
POD activity was measured at 30 C and determined by monitoring the increase rate of absorbance at 398 and 460 nm, according to
the methodology described by Tian et al. (2005). POD activity was
expressed as U g1 , where one unit was expressed as the increase
rate of absorbency per mass of fruit pulp per min.
2.7. Assay of O2 production rate
Superoxide free radical (O2 ) production rate was assayed
based on the method of Elstner and Heupel (1976) by monitoring
the nitrite formation from hydroxylamine in the presence of O2 .
The absorbance in the aqueous solution was read at 530 nm. A standard curve with NO2 was used to calculate the production rate of
O2 from the chemical reaction between O2 and hydroxylamine.
2.8. Statistical analysis
All data were analyzed by analysis of variance (ANOVA) using
SPSS v 16.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA), and signicant difference (P < 0.05) among means was determined by Duncans multiple
range test.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Fruit rmness

2.5. Measurements of SSC, TA and vitamin C content in pulp

The soluble solids content (SSC) in pulp was measured using a
hand refractometer (10481 S/N, USA).
Titratable acidity (TA) in pulp was assayed based on the method
of Bassetto et al. (2005). Briey, 10 g of puree was diluted with
90 mL of water, titrated with 0.1 N NaOH to pH 8.1 and expressed
as a percentage of citric acid.
For vitamin C analysis, pulp tissue (2 g) was well homogenized
with 20 mL of 6% metaphosphoric acid in 2 M acetic acid and centrifuged for 10 min at 13,000 g and 4 C. The vitamin C content

Fruit rmness is often the rst of many quality major attributes

judged by the consumer and is, therefore, extremely important in
overall product acceptance. Guava suffers a rapid loss of rmness
during senescence which contributes greatly to its short postharvest life and susceptibility to fungal contamination. Changes in esh
rmness between control and coated fruit samples during 12 days
of storage at 11 C are shown in Fig. 1A. Initial esh rmness values
were similar for control and coated samples. On the third day of
storage uncoated guavas began to show a gradual loss of rmness.
The rmness of coated guavas also decreased progressively, but on

K. Hong et al. / Scientia Horticulturae 144 (2012) 172178

10

-1

Chlorophyll content (ug.g FW)

-2

Firmness (kg.cm )

18

17

16

15
14

13

12
110

14

12

100
90

10

80

70

60

50
40

Weight loss (%)

-1

19

MDA content (mmol.g FW)

174

2
0

12

12

Days after treatment

0%

0.5%

1.0%

2.0%

Fig. 1. Effect of chitosan coating on rmness (A), weight loss (B), chlorophyll content (C) and malondialdehyde (MDA) content (D) of guavas fruit during storage at 11 C.
Each value is the mean for three replicates, and vertical bars indicate the standard errors.

and after the sixth day of storage rmness values for coated samples
were higher compared to the control samples, and then signicant differences were noted between 0.5 and 2.0% chitosan coating
treatments for the same period. With regard to coated samples,
2.0% chitosan coating was more effective in preventing decrease
of fruit rmness than the other treatments at 11 C. For example,
rmness in the fruit treated with 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0% chitosan was 6,
10 and 14% higher than that in the control after 9 days of storage,
respectively.
The retention of rmness with chitosan coating is similar with
the result of Ali et al. (2011), where papayas treated with 2.0% chitosan coating were rmer than the other treatments during cold
storage. Fruit, such as tomato and mango, have also been reported
to be rmer when treated with chitosan (Kim et al., 1999; Zhu et al.,
2008). In this study, fruit softening was reduced with increasing chitosan concentrations, and as a result, the control and 0.5% treated
fruit lost their textural integrity faster than fruit coated with 1.0
and 2.0% chitosan. Fruit softening is due to deterioration in the cell
structure, the cell wall composition and the intracellular materials
(Seymour et al., 1993). The maintenance of rmness in the guavas
treated with chitosan coatings could be due to their higher antifungal activity, and covering of the cuticle and lenticels, thereby
reducing infection, respiration and other ripening processes during
storage, according to previous reports in papaya and sweet cherry
coated with chitosan and aloe vera gel (Ali et al., 2005; MartnezRomero et al., 2006).

3.2. Weight loss

Application of chitosan coating retarded the weight loss of
guavas fruit during storage compared to the control. There was an
added benet to control of weight loss by increasing concentrations
of chitosan from 0.5 to 2.0%. For example, the lowest weight loss

was found in 2.0% chitosan followed by 1.0 and 0.5% chitosan and
then uncoated after 12 days of storage (Fig. 1B).
Loss of weight in fresh fruit and vegetable is mainly due to the
loss of water caused by transpiration and respiration processes (Zhu
et al., 2008). Chitosan coating forms a layer of semi-transparent to
smooth the pericarp surface (Dong et al., 2004) and can be used as
a protective barrier to reduce respiration and transpiration rates
through fruit surfaces (Kester and Fennema, 1986). Coating the
guava fruit with chitosan was clearly effective in conferring a physical barrier to moisture loss; therefore, a decreased weight loss in
the chitosan-coated fruit was observed during evaluation in our
study. Our results are supported by Ali et al. (2011), where water
loss of papaya fruit can be reduced by coating with chitosan. Apart
from guava fruit, chitosan coatings have been effective at controlling weight loss from other commodities, including cucumber and
pepper (El Ghaouth et al., 1991b), longan fruit (Jiang and Li, 2001),

et al., 2008) and mushroom

strawberry fruit (Hernndez-Munoz
(Jiang et al., 2012).
3.3. Chlorophyll content
The change in color of guava from green to yellow continued
over the storage period. To explore guava quality, the color must
be measured objectively. We monitored the changes in the color of
fruit peel undergoing different treatments, by measuring chlorophyll content. The initial chlorophyll content of guavas was 99 g/g.
This reference value decreased with the storage time, becoming
54 g/g in the control fruit at end of storage, as shown in Fig. 1C,
whereas chlorophyll content of the samples treated with different
concentrations (0.5, 1.0 and 2.0%) of chitosan changed from 61 to
76 g/g. In addition, signicant differences were found between
the coated and uncoated samples.
The reduction of chlorophyll content in the guava fruit treated
with chitosan is similar with the result of Xing et al. (2011), where

K. Hong et al. / Scientia Horticulturae 144 (2012) 172178

chitosan coating exhibited better control effect on the reduction

chlorophyll content of sweet pepper. Similar result was reported
by Jiang and Li (2001) who had observed that the longan fruit
coated with 2.0% chitosan underwent slower changes than the
other lower concentrations chitosan in their peel color. It is believed
that the retardation of color development in papaya fruit treated
with higher concentrations (2.0%) of chitosan could be attributed to
the slow rate of respiration and reduced ethylene production, leading to a modied internal atmosphere of the fruit (Ali et al., 2011).
Additionally, fruits, such as tomato and papaya have been reported
to increase the internal CO2 concentrations when coated with chitosan (El Ghaouth et al., 1992; Ali et al., 2011), and as a result,
elevated CO2 levels have been shown to retard fruit ripening by
inhibiting ethylene synthesis (Martnez-Romero et al., 2006). In this
study, fruit coated with 2.0% chitosan were observed with a greater
effect on reduction change in the peel color than the other treatments, suggesting that modied atmosphere in guava fruit created
by 2.0% chitosan was effective in suppressing the activity of ethylene, and then retarding the ripening process. This, in turn, delayed
the ripening and senescence of the fruit, resulting in reduced color
change and fruit rmness.

3.4. MDA content

MDA is often used as one index of cell oxidative damage since
it is the product of lipid peroxidation (Xu et al., 2009). Therefore,
MDA content has been used as an indicator of membrane injury.
As shown in Fig. 1D, MDA content in guava pulp increased with
storage time and MDA content parameters in uncoated fruit were
signicantly higher than that in coated fruit throughout the storage
period. Moreover, the chitosan concentration of the coating solution gave rise to signicant differences in the value of MDA content
in the fruit, where samples coated with 2.0% chitosan showed a
lower increase in the value of MDA content, suggesting that 2.0%
chitosan treatment was better at maintaining membrane integrity.

175

3.5.2. Titratable acidity (TA)

Citric acid is the major organic acid in ripe guava fruit. TA in all
samples reduced over time and was affected by different concentrations of chitosan treatments. The decrease of TA values was directly
proportional to the chitosan concentrations, as a result, application
of 2.0% chitosan coating had higher TA than the other treatments
(Table 1). However, TA did not vary signicantly between the fruit
samples treated with 0.5 and 1.0% chitosan during storage and the
difference between 1.0 and 2.0% chitosan on day 6 was signicant.
The faster reduction in acidity gave rise to a faster senescence.
Han et al. (2004) reported that the chitosan coating slowed down
the changes in TA of strawberry and raspberry, effectively delaying fruit ripening. The chitosan coating at 2.0% was probably able to
modify the internal atmosphere of the fruit to prevent the decrease
in TA contents. Therefore, the 2.0% chitosan coating produced a
small change in TA throughout storage. Han et al. (2004) also
observed lower acidity loss during storage in strawberry, peach,
tomato and litchi coated with chitosan.
3.5.3. Vitamin C content
Vitamin C in guava fruit pulp gradually decreased during storage, and this reduction was effectively inhibited by 1.0 and 2.0%
chitosan coating. As shown in Table 1, fruit treated with 1.0 and 2.0%
chitosan delayed the loss of vitamin C compared with the control
and 0.5% chitosan coating during the whole storage and signicant
difference between them was found at 9-day storage. Meanwhile,
0.5% chitosan treatment showed signicant effect on vitamin C content also at 9-day storage in comparison with the control. However,
there was no signicant effect on vitamin C content of guava pulp
between 0.5 and 1.0% chitosan coating.
The fruit coated with 1.0 and 2.0% chitosan showed a slower
decrease in vitamin C. This suggests that the chitosan coating
slowed down the loss of vitamin C during low temperature storage.
Similar results have been reported that tomatoes stored at high CO2
(Mathooko, 2003) and the food kept O2 away from it (Ayranci and
Tunc, 2004), the loss of their vitamin C was delayed. It suggests that
the modied atmosphere created by chitosan coating suppresses
the loss of vitamin C.

3.5. Quality attributes

3.6. Activities of POD, SOD and CAT
3.5.1. Soluble solids content (SSC)
Changes in SSC of guava over storage are shown in Table 1. The
SSC of control and 0.5% chitosan coating fruit samples increased
signicantly while samples coated with 1.0 and 2.0% experienced
a slight increase during 12 days storage. Signicant difference
between coated samples and the uncoated control samples was
found on day 6 and fruit coated with 0.5 and 2.0% chitosan showed
signicant effect on SSC on day 9. Although the lowest level of SSC
was recorded in guava coated with 2.0% chitosan throughout the
storage period, SSC did not vary signicantly between the fruits
treated with 1.0 and 2.0% chitosan.
The effect of chitosan coating on SSC of guava fruit was probably due to the slowing down of respiration and metabolic activity,
hence retarding the ripening process. It is well documented that
the lmogenic property of chitosan results in an excellent semipermeable lm around the vegetable and fruit, modifying the
internal atmosphere by reducing O2 and/or elevating CO2 , and
suppressing ethylene evolution (Dong et al., 2004). A suppressing respiration rate also slows down the synthesis and the use of
metabolites, resulting in lower SSC, due to the slower hydrolysis
of carbohydrates to sugars (Rohani et al., 1997). Our results are
in line with those Kittur et al. (2001) and Ali et al. (2011), where a
slow rise in SSC was recorded in mango, banana and papaya treated
with chitosan. However, other studies have indicated that the SSC
in papaya and zucchini treated with chitosan were the same as in
et al., 2003).
the untreated fruits (Bautista-Bannos

As shown in Fig. 2A, POD activity of guava fruit decreased

markedly within 3 days and then increased during the latter period
of storage. Treatment with chitosan coating induced the increase
in POD activity, and there was a signicantly positive correlation
among them.
The activity of SOD in guava fruit was raised rst and then
decreased from 3 days (Fig. 2B). The levels of SOD activity in treated
fruit showed a relatively higher value than that of the control.
The levels of SOD activities increased as chitosan concentration
increased. The maximum retention in SOD activity was obtained
with 2.0% chitosan. However, there was no signicant (P < 0.05) difference in the SOD activity of the fruit treated with 0.5 and 1.0%
chitosan during storage.
CAT activities in all fruits decreased during storage (Fig. 2C).
However, the treatments with chitosan coating delayed the
decrease of CAT activity. At the end of storage, there were 11.42,
12.00 and 13.53 U g1 min1 in CAT activities of fruit treated with
0.5, 1.0 and 2.0% chitosan, respectively. While the value of CAT
activity in compare fruit was only 11.00, which was lower than
those of the treatments.
To control the level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and to
protect cells under stress conditions, plant tissues contain several
enzymes scavenging ROS including SOD, CAT, POD, etc. ROS in plant
tissues could be scavenged off by antioxidant enzymes such as CAT,
to prevent harmful effects of excess H2 O2 on tissues (Lamb and

176

K. Hong et al. / Scientia Horticulturae 144 (2012) 172178

Table 1
Effect of chitosan concentrations on quality attributesA of guava fruit stored at 11 C for 12 days.
Storage daysB

Attributes

Chitosan (%)

SSC (%)

0.0
0.5
1.0
2.0

9.0
9.0
9.0
9.0

0.17a
0.17a
0.17a
0.17a

9.2
9.0
9.1
9.0

0.16a
0.18a
0.14a
0.16a

Citric acid (%)

0.0
0.5
1.0
2.0

0.41
0.41
0.41
0.41

0.006a
0.006a
0.006a
0.006a

0.39
0.40
0.41
0.42

Vitamin C (mg/100 g)

0.0
0.5
1.0
2.0

122
122
122
122

3.3a
3.3a
3.3a
3.3a

115
118
119
121

9
9.6
9.2
9.1
9.0

0.20a
0.17b
0.18b
0.14b

0.005c
0.007bc
0.009ab
0.006a

0.37
0.38
0.39
0.41

2.8b
2.4ab
3.1a
2.4a

110
114
117
119

12
9.9
9.5
9.2
9.1

0.18a
0.16b
0.17bc
0.15c

10.2
9.8
9.4
9.2

0.16a
0.12b
0.14c
0.12c

0.004c
0.008bc
0.009b
0.007a

0.35
0.37
0.38
0.40

0.004c
0.007b
0.008b
0.006a

0.34
0.36
0.37
0.39

0.005c
0.006b
0.008b
0.007a

2.1c
2.4bc
3.0ab
2.7a

98
106
109
114

3.0c
3.0b
3.1b
2.8a

97
105
106
109

2.3c
2.5b
2.4b
2.3a

Means are averaged values of 3 trials.

The different letters within a row with the same storage time indicate signicant differences at P < 0.05 level.

Dixon, 1997). SOD and POD are also important enzymes in such
action, and SOD can protect cells from oxidant stress by dismutating
super oxide anion (O2 ) to H2 O2 . Previous studies have indicated
that chitosan could induce hosts to increase antioxidative activity.
For example, chitosan treatments enhanced activities of POD and
CAT in tomato and sweet cherry fruit (Liu et al., 2007; Dang et al.,
2010). In addition, Zeng et al. (2010) reported that the activities
of SOD and POD in navel orange fruit were induced by chitosan.
In this study, we found that the activities of SOD, CAT and POD
in chitosan-treated fruit were induced during storage (Fig. 2AC).
As an antioxidant enzyme, CAT plays an important role in oxidation resistant activities. Samples coated with chitosan had higher
CAT activities than control ones in our experiment indicating that
the chitosan coating delayed the senescence of guava fruit (Fig. 1).
Furthermore, the activities of ROS-interacting enzymes (SOD and
POD) in guava fruit were also enhanced by chitosan coating, which

-1

CAT activity (U.g FW)

-1

POD activity (U.g FW)

11.5

might scavenge excessive ROS and protect the tissues from injury
of it.
3.7. O2 production rate
In order to gain an insight into the effects of chitosan coating on
the responses of ROS in guava fruit, one key member of radical chain
reactions family (O2 ) was tracked. The results showed O2 production rate increased slowly in guava fruit treated with chitosan
coating as the period of storage increased. While, in control fruit,
it increased sharply throughout storage. Moreover, the degree of
inhibition of O2 production rate was dependent on the concentrations of chitosan used. After 12 days of storage, O2 production
rate of fruit treated with 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0% chitosan was 96, 94 and
87% of the control, respectively, of which the O2 production rate
reached a peak (Fig. 2D).

11.0

420

400

10.5
10.0

380

9.5

360

9.0

340

8.5

SOD (U.g-1 FW)

320

8.0
7.5
20

300

18
16

14
2

12
10

O2.-(nmol.min-1g-1 FW)

1
0

12

12

Days after treatment

0%

0.5%

1.0%

2.0%

Fig. 2. Effect of chitosan coating on the activities of POD (A), SOD (B), CAT (C) and O2 (D) of guavas fruit during storage at 11 C. Each value is the mean for three replicates,
and vertical bars indicate the standard errors.

K. Hong et al. / Scientia Horticulturae 144 (2012) 172178

ROS can cause lipid peroxidation and lead to the loss of membrane integrity of plant organ through a series of redox reactions,
in which SOD converts O2 into H2 O2 (Scandalios, 1993). It is
well known that high level of O2 could cause plant cells damage. Therefore, SOD plays a more important role in scavenging
off excessive of O2 . Our result indicated that induction of SOD
activity by chitosan coating could contribute to the decreased O2
production rate in fruit tissues, which might protect the tissues
from injury of ROS. Here fruit coated with chitosan exhibited a
high efciency antioxidant capacity soon after as the ROS accumulation, and as a result, MDA accumulation was controlled well
(Fig. 2D). These ndings are similar to the results obtained by Zeng
et al. (2010) who reported that chitosan treatment could induce
the navel orange fruit disease resistance by regulating the H2 O2
levels.
4. Conclusions
In conclusion, the experiment conducted here indicated that
the application of chitosan coating, especially 2.0% (w/v) chitosan solution combined with a low temperature (11 C) inhibited
fruit ripening and maintained the quality of the fruit. Chitosan treatment also increased the activities of antioxidant
enzymes while decreased production of O2 and MDA content. The results suggested that chitosan showed positive effects
in maintaining membrane integrity and thus in delaying ripening process in guava fruit mainly through decrease oxidative
stress.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by Chinese Special Fund of
Basic Scientic Research Projects for State Level and Public
WelfareScientic Research Institutes (1251022012001).
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