A Study of Effectiveness of Natural Coatings on the Shelf Life Extension of Tomatoes by the Observation of TomloxC Gene Expression

摘要

Tomato is a popular vegetable throughout the whole world. Use of harmful preservatives or high amount of preservatives can deteriorate the quality of food and cause harm. In this paper, we have studied the effect of naturalnatural coatings i.e. mixtures of Aloevera gel, pectin and olive oil on the quality parameters and extension of shelf life of different tomato (Local, Bizli and Lovely) cultivars.TomloxC is a gene that increases in amount when the tomato ripens. We studied the expression of TomloxCgene and measured physical parameters and nutritional values of the coated and uncoated tomatoes.The expression of this gene is less in coated tomatoes than in uncoated tomatoes which indicated the efficiency of the coating. The physical parameters andnutritional characteristics were also found better in the coated ones. The shelf life of coated fruits increased to 4 to 6 days compared to that of uncoated ones. The average weight loss was 5-7% less in coated tomatoes than in uncoated one. So, the combined mixture of natural coating of Aloevera gel, pectin and olive oil has high prospects to be used as a coating for vegetables.