CITATION: Kawhena, T. G. et al. 2020. Application of gum arabic and methyl cellulose coatings enriched with thyme oil to maintain quality and extend shelf life of “Acco” pomegranate arils. Plants, 9(12):1690, doi:10.3390/plants9121690.The original publication is available at https://www.mdpi.comThe effects of gum arabic (GA; 1.5% w/v) and methyl cellulose (MC; 1% w/v) enriched with
thyme oil (TO; 0.25 and 0.5% v/v) on the quality of “Acco” pomegranate arils were studied. Coating
treatments, namely, MC, MC + TO0.5%, MC + TO0.25%, GA, GA + TO0.5% and GA + TO0.25% were
applied on arils by dipping, and evaluations were made on physicochemical and microbiological
quality, phytochemicals and antioxidant capacity of arils stored (5 ± 1
◦C, 95 ± 2% RH) for 16 days.
Dipping arils in GA or MC, both containing TO (0.5% v/v) significantly (p < 0.0001) reduced weight
loss and enhanced antioxidant activity (FRAP) (p = 0.0014). However, dipping arils in GA combined
with TO (0.25% v/v) had the highest influence on reducing aril respiration rate compared with other
treatments. Overall, results showed that application of coatings (GA + TO0.5% and GA + TO0.25%)
reduced total yeast and mould and total plate counts and maintained quality up to 8 days of storage.
These findings suggest that either GA + TO0.5% or GA + TO0.25% coatings have the capability to
extend storage life of “Acco” pomegranate arils.Pomegranate Association of South Africa (POMASA)https://www.mdpi.com/2223-7747/9/12/1690Publisher's versio
