Okra Juice driven edible coating for fruit preservation

Abstract

It is necessary for developing food coatings with excellent free radicals scarifying and microbial spoilage preventing capabilities, as well as good biosafety. Herein, we have developed an edible coating from okra juice for food preservation. This edible preservative coating has a significant ability to chelate Fe²⁺ and reduce free radicals. It can chelate 31.59±1.58 % of Fe²⁺ and inhibit 96.44±1.37 % of superoxide anion, 92.03±0.69 % of 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline)-6-sulphonic acid and 25.07±1.20 % of 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radicals, respectively. Meanwhile, this okra juice driven food preservative is transparent and easily washed with water within 120 s. This coating could not only extend the storage time of fresh strawberries and wounded apples through scarifying free radicals, but also keep them from microbial spoilage due to the film forming ability. Finally, in order to convenience its application in daily life, the coatings were obtained through homemade okra juice, which also present well preservation capability against fresh fruit. This okra juice driven edible coating provides a new strategy for developing food preservatives with antioxidant and antimicrobial properties, simple production process, and inherent biosafety.