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Fruits of two apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.) cultivars ‘Bagheri’ and ‘Asgarabadi’ were treated with 1 or 3% of Calcium Chloride (CaCl₂) or Calcium propionate (Ca pro) and stored at 1°C, 90% RH for 21 days (d). Fruits were sampled weekly and stored for 2 days at 20°C for shelf life study. Chilling Injury (CI), firmness, color, Titratable Acidity (TA), Soluble Solid Content (SSC), fruit calcium concentrations, Pectin MethylEsterase (PME) enzyme activity and pectin content were monitored during the storage period. CI was first detected in the control fruit after 7 days, and incidence and severity of CI in control fruit was higher than in calcium treated fruit after 14 days. Calcium treatments increased fruit calcium concentrations and delayed ethylene production, as well as softening and color changes. PME activity and water-insoluble pectin decreased while water-soluble pectin increased during fruit storage. Higher calcium concentrations may help to maintain fruit quality by alleviating CI incidence and inhibiting ripening in fruit stored at low temperature.

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Quince fruit has many benefits to human health and is an excellent source of pectin for jellies and jam industry. The objective of the present research was to study fruit physio-chemical attributes of some quince genotypes at harvest and their changes during cold storage. The fruit of 15 genotypes were harvested at optimum maturity and stored for 0, 30, 60, 90 and 120 days in cold storage and some parameters were measured. The range of 13.00-18.76% for Soluble Solid Content (SSC), 0.38-0.95% for titratable acidity, 2.55-3.75 for pH, 52.16-91.00 N for firmness, 0.89-0.98 g cm^-3 for density, 255.39-349.56 mg 100 g^-1 DM for carbohydrate, 7.28-23.02% for pectin and 11.66-33.30% for fruit fibers were observed across genotypes at harvest time. Negative correlations were found between weight loss and both firmness and density, while firmness had positive correlation with pectin and Ca content. Generally, significant changes (P≤ 0.05) for measured characters were observed across genotypes and during cold storage, but the rate of changes varied according to genotypes. It was found that each studied genotype had one or more unique character such as lowest weight loss in ‘Paveh 1’, highest fruit firmness retaining in ‘Marivan1’, highest pectin in ‘Marivan 1’ and highest SSC in ‘Marivan 2’, that are promising for fruit breeding in future programs.

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Strawberry is a perishable fruit and gray mold is one of the main reasons which reducing its shelf life. Due to the limitations of using chemical poisons, it seems necessary to use safe methods such as the use of essential oils (EOs) and edible coatings to control this fungus maintain the quality, and increase the storage period. However, the high volatility of EOs and organoleptic effects on agricultural products have hindered the direct application of EOs. This study is designed to enhance the shelf life of strawberries by designing nanoemulsion systems of EO with chitosan as follows: in the first experiment, the effect of nanoemulsion of the thymol, one of the main components of thyme, with a concentration of 5 g/L, alone and in combination with chitosan (CH) biopolymer was investigated on Botrytis cinerea. All treatments significantly reduced fungal growth compared to the control sample. Also, combined treatment showed the highest level of inhibition of B. cinerea. The second experiment was performed to evaluate the quality changes and post-harvest wastes of strawberries during storage. In this section, the fruits were coated with thymol 0.5%, thymol nanoemulsion 0.5%, and thymol nanoemulsion 0.5% + CH 0.5% and kept at 4 °C. Results presented that the application of the applied treatments had a positive effect on the physicochemical and biochemical indicators of strawberry fruit during the post-harvest period and caused better preservation of firmness, prevented weight loss and reduced microbial load. Also, the lowest rate of weight loss, the highest rate of firmness, and the lowest rate of growth of microorganisms were observed in covered fruits with treatment of thymol nanoemulsion 0.5% + CH 0.5%. Finally, this treatment can be suggested as a suitable cover to maintain the quality and reduce post-harvest waste of strawberries.