Efficacy of Gum Arabic as an esculent film on shelf life extension of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L) fruit

Effect of Gum Arabic (GA) as a non-toxic outer layer to prolong the shelf-life of tomato was carried out in the present study. Tomatoes were coated with 0% (Control) (A), 5% w/v (B), 10% w/v (C), 15% w/v (D) and 20% w/v (E) GA and stored at ambient (33°C; 70%). The polygalacturonase and β-galacturonase activities were carried out. Weight loss, titratable acidity, pH, lycopene, β-Carotene and antioxidant property of the fruits were determined at day 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 during the experimental duration. Results indicated that polygalacturonase activity ranged from 0.753-1.138 unit/mg, β-galacturonase activity ranged from 1.55-2.78 x 103 miller units, β-carotene ranged from 1.78-23.89 mg/g, antioxidant property ranged from 66.26-192.12μg/g, titratable acidity was from 0.595-0.95% while the lycopene ranged from 0.77-17.62 mg/g. These results showed that control had significant rapid weight loss with faster rate of softening while the tomatoes coated with GA demonstrated a significant (p<0.05) deferment in ripening as well as maintained its nutritional quality up to 20 days. This indicates that GA may be utilized as an edible coating for tomato. Key words: Edible film, Gum Arabic, ripening, shelf life.