Effect of different concentration of Aloe vera gel on maintaining postharvest quality of strawberry

In this study, effect of different concentrations of gel extraction from Aloe vera on postharvest quality of strawberry cultivars "Kordestan" at 20 ºC and "Selva" variety at 20 and 4 ºC were investigated. Fruits were immersed in the gel in concentrations at 25, 50, 75, 100% and also distilled water (as control sample), for five minutes. Quality characteristics including weight loss, total acidity, sugar content, firmness, vitamin C content, total anthocyanin and phenolics content and antioxidant capacity were determined. Coated fruits by A. vera gel, significantly reduced weight loss as compared to control. The minimum weight loss was founded from fruits coated with 100% (v/v) and minimum firmness was achieved with control sample at the end of storage. Also, sugar content, vitamin C content and antioxidant capacity in coated fruits were maintained significantly better than control samples. A. vera gel coating had no significant effect on total acidity, total anthocyanin and total phenolics content of Kordestan variety and total acidity, total phenolics content and antioxidant capacity of Selva variety. Heat treatment had significant effect on all postharvest quality indexes of Selva variety, exceptional its antioxidant capacity.