A Study of Effectiveness of Natural Coatings on the Shelf Life Extension of Tomatoes by the Observation of TomloxC Gene Expression

Paroma Arefin¹*, Ruhul Amin², Md. Zafar As Sadiq¹, Subarna Sandhani Dey¹, Farhana Boby¹, Md.Shimul Parvaz¹, Murshed Hasan Sarkar¹, Md. Shehan Habib³, AKM Shamsul Alam¹ and Md. Ibrahim¹

¹Fruits and Food Processing and Preservation Research Division,Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research Laboratories, Binodpur Bazar, Rajshahi, Bangladesh

²Bangladesh Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR), Dhaka, Bangladesh

³Bangladesh Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR), Chattogram, Bangladesh

Corresponding Author E-mail : paroma.arefin@gmail.com

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.13005/bbra/2849

ABSTRACT: Tomato is a popular vegetable throughout the whole world. Use of harmful preservatives or high amount of preservatives can deteriorate the quality of food and cause harm. In this paper, we have studied the effect of naturalnatural coatings i.e. mixtures of Aloevera gel, pectin and olive oil on the quality parameters and extension of shelf life of different tomato (Local, Bizli and Lovely) cultivars.TomloxC is a gene that increases in amount when the tomato ripens. We studied the expression of TomloxC gene and measured physical parameters and nutritional values of the coated and uncoated tomatoes.The expression of this gene is less in coated tomatoes than in uncoated tomatoes which indicated the efficiency of the coating. The physical parameters and nutritional characteristics were also found better in the coated ones. The shelf life of coated fruits increased to 4 to 6 days compared to that of uncoated ones. The average weight loss was 5-7% less in coated tomatoes than in uncoated one. So, the combined mixture of natural coating of Aloevera gel, pectin and olive oil has high prospects to be used as a coating for vegetables.

KEYWORDS: Aloe vera coating; Gene Expression; Nutritional value; Pectin; Physical parameters; Tomato; TomloxC

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