Effects of chitosan coating on strawberry preservation

The effects of chitosan coating on strawberry were studied under normal temperature storage with appending of auxiliary agent. The results showed that the rate of water loss,decomposition and mildew infection of strawberry decreased remarkably ( P 0.01); the content of soluble solid substance,soluble sugar,soluble protein and Vc of strawberry increased markedly,and the proportion of sugar and acid improved observably ( P 0 05); the released quantity of CO 2 and ethylene reduced obviously,the activity of SOD enzyme enhanced,the penetrability of cell membrane diminished,and the content of MDA cut down remarkably ( P 0.01),when it was coated with chitosan which was mixed with molecular weight of 1 700 and 30 000. These qualities of strawberry which was coated with chitosan were enhanced with appending of auxiliary agent considerably.