Abstract:
Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) is one of the world's most widely produced and
consumed fresh vegetables. The postharvest losses in tomatoes are a serious problem, because
of rapid deterioration during handling, transport and storage. These losses of tomato fruits
require unique and easy techniques to prevent. The use of enset starch (ES) and moringa leaf
extract (MLE) is considered a good choice for preservation technique to extend the shelf life of
tomato fruit. Therefore, this study was initiated to investigate the effect of coating by enset
starch and moringa leaf extract on the physical, chemical and microbial quality of tomato fruit
stored at ambient conditions. The treatments were carried out using factorial design. Coating
of tomato fruits were done by dipping into solution for 3 minutes. The difference between
treatments means were tested at significance level of P<0.05 using the SAS 9.1 software. The
effectiveness of edible coating in maintaining quality attributes of tomato fruits was determined
at four days’interval for 28 days. The tomato quality parameters such as physiological weight
loss (PWL), decay loss, marketability, firmness, colour, storage life, otal soluble solid (TSS),
pH, ascorbic acid (AA), titratable acidity (TA), yeast and mold and total bacteria count were
evaluated. As the storage period increased the PWL, decay loss, change in color, TSS, total
bacteria and yeast and mold count increased. However, the main effects of enset starch and
interaction of coatings lower PWL to (7.35%) and (7%) respectively. The treatment
combinations maintain firmness (3.58kg/cm2
) of tomato fruits. whereas, marketability, ascorbic
acid, acidity and storage life decreased. There were significant differences P<0.05) among
treated and control samples. All treatments delayed tomato ripening and preserved the quality
attributes. In general, the finding of study revealed that, the main effects of 10% enset starch
and the treatment combination of 10% ES and 25% MLE followed by 10% ES and 20% MLE
maintained the tomato fruit qualities for 28 days. The findings of this study can be valuable
information on reducing postharvest losses of the tomato produced for use by farmers,
researchers and other stockholders in fresh tomatoes fruits value chain.
