Investigating Effects of Wax Coating and Storage Duration on Quality and Antiradical Efficiency of Four Citrus Fruit Cultivars

The citrus fruit coating is a common postharvest treatment before storage. It seems necessary to study fruit quality and nutritional value changes in this condition. Orange fruits including, Thomson, Siavaraz (A local cultivar), Moro, and Page mandarin were used in this experiment. Treatments were included control (Non-coating), wax coating (Britex Ti) and storage duration (0, 30, 60 and 90 days). Treated fruits were stored at 5°C for 90 days and some qualitative properties of fruits were evaluated with fruit taken from 0, 30, 60 and 90 days during storage. The results showed that fruit weight loss in non-waxed fruits were higher than wax-coated fruits during storage. Wax treatment only had a significant effect on losses of Thomson cultivar during storage. The peel color indices did not change during storage significantly. No significant differences were observed between coated and non-coated fruits about juice percentage, pH, TA and TSS during storage. The TSS: TA ratio decreased in all cultivars significantly. Wax caused an enhancing in antiradical efficiency (in pulp) during two month storage, but reduced again at the end of storage. Finally, sensory analysis revealed that, waxed fruits had better sense and quality conditions -except of page mandarin- compared with non-coated fruits.