Tropical fruits are subjected to great losses from harvest to consumption. The main objective of this workwas to research and characterize new materials as galactomannans and determine the optimal compositionof galactomannan-based coatings in view of their application to extend the shelf life of several tropicalfruits. Galactomannans extracted from seeds of Caesalpinea pulcherrima, Adenanthera pavonina,Gleditsia triacanthos and Sophora japonica were characterized as coatings for five tropical fruits: acerola(Malpighia emarginata), cajá (Spondias lutea), mango (Mangifera indica), pitanga (Eugenia uniflora) andseriguela (Spondias purpurea). The intrinsic viscosity of galactomannans solutions with and without glycerol,were determined. The surface properties of fruits was determined, and different formulations of aqueousgalactomannan solutions (0.5 %, 1.0 % and 1.5 %) with glycerol (1.0 %; 1.5 % and 2.0 %) were testedin terms of wettability on the five fruits. To analyse the capacity of the galactomannans to decrease thefungal growth, tests using four strains of fungi were performed with: Penicillium commune, Penicilliumcrustosum, Penicillium roqueforti and Botrytis cinerea. The galactomannan that demonstrated to providea more significant fungal inhibition was G. triacanthos. The C. pulcherrima seed galactomannan wasanalysed to determine its sub-chronic toxicity in mice, measuring the evolution of weight, glycemic levelsand total cholesterol levels during three months; no toxicity was observed. The weight loss from acerolaand mango, coated with galactomannan from C. pulcherrima, during storage time was determined, givinggood indications that the use of solutions of this galactomannan and glycerol as coating decreases theweight loss of the fruits. The obtained results confirmed the suitability of galactomannan-based coatings toprolong the shelf life of tropical fruits.
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