CHAPTER II

Review of Related Literature and Studies

This chapter presents the studies that have the bearing on the

present study.

A. Related Literature

Food market continuously generates novel products by following

the trends of consumers whose preferences are increasing towards

ready-to-use foods. Among these, fresh-cut fruits and vegetables are

at the top of the list and are stimulating a great effort of

research in this area. In fact, their market has grown rapidly in

recent years as a result of the changes in consumer habits.

Therefore, there is a real need to find new methods for preservation

of processed food products able to achieve widespread acceptance by

the industry. Food appearance remains the most required attribute,

strongly affecting consumer decision to buy it or not. In addition,

food texture is also a fundamental feature determining product

acceptability, appearance and texture changes being very tightly

linked markers of food deterioration. Both appearance and texture of

a fruit or vegetable tissue strictly depend on genetic,

environmental, postharvest handling and storage factors. Therefore,

the precise knowledge of the processes leading to the appearance and

textural modifications is of crucial importance in developing

effective approaches to counteract them and, hence, to improve

quality and shelf-life of these products.

Several studies about extending the life of fruits for a better

yield has been conducted in the market, and one of those is the use

of chitosan derived from chitin. Chitin, after cellulose is the most

abundant polysaccharide in nature, and is primarily present in the

exoskeletons of crustaceans (such as crab, shrimp, lobster etc.) and

also in various insects, worms, fungi and mushrooms in varying

amount. In this study, we have reviewed the Chitosan, Chitosan

properties and its applications. It is similar to cellulose,in which

the C-2 hydroxyl groups are replaced by acetamido residue. Chitosan

is polysaccharide easily available in nature from the shells and

other sea crustaceans. It can be derivetiesed in number of forms.

(Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Naples “Federico

II”, Naples, Italy)

The application of edible coatings is increasingly demonstrating

to be a relatively new and simple technology effective in preventing

the appearance and textural deterioration of several products. The

use of different types of films based on a variety of single

biopolymers, or on their combinations, results to be extremely

advantageous even though all data obtained so far indicate that the

coatings need to be tailored and optimized for each kind of foods.

More than twenty years ago (Nisperos-Carriedo et al.) demonstrated

that edible coatings based on cellulose gums effectively delay

ripening in some climacteric fruits like mangoes, papayas, and

bananas and significantly reduce enzymatic browning on sliced

mushrooms. Ten years later (Le Tien et al.) showed that milk protein

coatings are able to counteract oxidative degradation of cut fruits

and vegetables through polyphenol oxidase inhibition. From then

several polysaccharides (chitosan, alginate, methylcellulose or

pectin) and proteins (casein, collagen, gelatin, phaseolin, zein,

soy or whey proteins), or mixtures of them, were shown to give rise

to edible films effective as water vapor and gas barriers for a wide

range of food products and as carriers for antimicrobials. In

particular, antimicrobial containing films are recently gaining

potential interest in reducing the deleterious effects caused by

also minimal cut processing of fresh fruits and vegetables.

(Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Naples “Federico

II”, Naples, Italy)

Tahong shells (Perna viridis) or mussel shells, as one of the

source of an edible film “chitosan” is said to be economic friendly

because it only serve as a waste product which we can find

scattering at the banks of the river or anywhere. In this study we

are going to maximize the use of tahong shells as our edible coating

for extending the shelf life mango fruit. Their wide distribution in

the coastal areas makes them the most easily gathered seafood
organisms, contributing a significant percentage to the world’s

marine bivalve production. In the Philippines, approximately 12,000

MT of mussels were produced in 1987. This amount consisted only of

the farmed green mussels, Perna viridis.

(http://www.slideshare.net/humanupgrade/mussels)

Applying chitosan derived from tahong shells (Perna viridis)can

affect the ripening physiology of fruits therefore affecting the

fruits property and quality. Fruit quality consists of many

attributes, both intrinsic, including texture, sweetness, acidity,

aroma, shelf life and nutritional value, and extrinsic, such as

colour or size. Mango is a fleshy fruit containing more than 80%

water (Lakshimnarayana et al., 1970 as cited by Mathieu LéchaudelI;

Jacques JoasII, 31 October 2007). Its size depends on the

accumulation of water and dry matter in the various compartments

during fruit growth. The skin, the flesh and the stone have specific

compositions that appear to accumulate water and dry matter at

different rates, depending on environmental conditions (Léchaudel et

al., 2002 as cited by Mathieu LéchaudelI; Jacques JoasII, 31 October

2007). Fruit growth after cell division consists in the enlargement

of fruit cells characterised by a large accumulation of water that

results from the balance between incoming fluxes such as phloem and

xylem, and outgoing fluxes such as transpiration (Ho et al., 1987 as

cited by Mathieu LéchaudelI; Jacques JoasII, 31 October 2007).

Changing the balance between these various fluxes, which have

elastic and plastic components, leads to large variations in fruit

volume. Mango dry matter mainly consists of carbohydrates, 60% of

which are sugars and acids (Ueda et al., 2000 as cited by Mathieu

LéchaudelI; Jacques JoasII, 31 October 2007), the main compounds

contributing to fruit sweetness and acidity (Malundo et al., 2001 as

cited by Mathieu LéchaudelI; Jacques JoasII, 31 October 2007). The

amount of carbohydrates supplied to tree fruits depends on the

amount produced by leaf photosynthesis, on sink demand and on the

availability of the reserve pool. Also, from the point of view of

fruit quality, it is essential to understand how preharvest factors

influence source-sink relationships involved in fruit growth. Fruit

flesh taste is highly dependent on the balance between organic acids

and soluble sugars, which are predominantly represented in mango by

citric and malic acids, and sucrose, fructose and glucose,

respectively (Medlicott and Thompson, 1985 as cited by Mathieu

LéchaudelI; Jacques JoasII, 31 October 2007). The patterns of these

compounds during mango development and maturation are well

described, even if many studies deal with the evolution of fruit

flesh composition during ripening according to harvest date. To our

knowledge, only a few results of preharvest factor effects on mango

taste have been reported. (An overview of preharvest factors

influencing mango fruit growth, quality and postharvest behavior by

Mathieu LéchaudelI; Jacques JoasII, 31 October 2007).(An overview of

preharvest factors influencing mango fruit growth, quality and

postharvest behavior by Mathieu LéchaudelI; Jacques JoasII, 31

October 2007)

B. Related Study

After cellulose, chitin is the most widespread

biopolymer in nature. Chitin and its derivatives have great

economic value because of their biological activities and

their industrial and biomedical applications. It can be

extracted from three sources, namely crustaceans,insects

and microorganisms. However, the main commercial sources of

chitin are shells of crustaceans such as shrimps, crabs,

lobsters and krill that are supplied in large quantities

by the shellfish processing industries. Extraction of

chitin involves two steps, demineralization and

deproteinisation, which can be conducted by two methods,

chemical or biological. The chemical method requires the

use of acids and bases, while the biological method

involves microorganisms. Although lactic acid bacteria are

 mainly applied, other microbial species including

proteolytic bacteria have also been successfully

implemented, as well as mixed cultures involving lactic

acid-producing bacteria and proteolytic microorganisms.

The produced lactic acid allows shell demineralisation,

since lactic acid reacts with calcium carbonate, the main

mineral component, to form calcium lactate.

One of the problems that fruit vendors and dealers always

encounter is the loss of profit due to the deterioration of the

quality of fruit during transportation. Loss of quality is due

to many factors including fast ripening. To avoid this problem,

the researchers thought of identifying materials that could

prolong the ripening process. This project can provide small

fruit vendors and dealers a safer and cheaper alternative to the

chemicals they use to delay ripening.

The project experimented on bananas since these ripen fast,

are readily available, and are a favorite fruit among Filipinos.

Other studies focused on chitin as an agent in delaying the

ripening of fruits. Unfotunately, it was only studied

extensively on nonclimetric fruits such as apples, oranges, and

peaches.
 Chitosan is a nontoxic, biodegradable, and biocompatible

polymer. Over the last several years, chitinous polymers,

especially chitosan,have received increased attention as one of

the promising renewable polymeric materials for their extensive

applications in the pharmaceutical and biomedical industries for

enzyme immobilization and purification, in chemical plants for

wastewater treatment, and in food industries for food

formulations as binding, gelling, thickening, and stabilizing

agent.

Other than as a delaying agent, chitosan has numerous

applications: in wastewater management for removal of metal

ions, flocculent/coagulant, protein, dye, and amino acids; in

medicine for wound and bone healing, blood cholesterol control,

skin burn, contact lens, surgical strucrures, dental plaque

inhibition, clotting agent, etc.; in agriculture for seed

coating and fertilizer; in cosmetics for moisturizer, face, hand

and body creams, bath lotion, etc.

Chitosan is a natural carbohydrate biopolymer derived by

deacetylation of chitin, a major component of the shells of

crab,shrimp, and crawfish. Shrimp shell, as well as crustacean

shell waste, mainly consists of protein, calcium carbonate, and

chitin on a dry basis.

 After cellulose, chitin is the second most abundant natural

biopolymer found in nature.

Like cellulose, chitosan is a fiber. However, unlike plant

fiber, chitosan possesses unique properties including the

ability to form films, optical structural characteristics, and

much more.( Bato Balani Vol. 30 No.2, 2008).