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Preservation of Strawberry Fruit with an Aloe vera Gel and Basil Oil Coating at
Ambient Temperature

Article  in  Journal of Food Processing and Preservation · July 2021

DOI: 10.1111/jfpp.15836

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Received: 27 March 2021    Revised: 7 July 2021    Accepted: 20 July 2021

DOI: 10.1111/jfpp.15836

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Preservation of strawberry fruit with an Aloe vera gel and basil

(Ocimum basilicum) essential oil coating at ambient temperature

Leila Mohammadi  | Fumina Tanaka | Fumihiko Tanaka

Laboratory of Post harvest Science, Faculty

of Agriculture, Kyushu University, Fukuoka,
Japan
Correspondence
Leila Mohammadi, Laboratory of Post
harvest Science, Faculty of Agriculture,
Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-­ku,
Fukuoka 819-­0395, Japan.
Email: agri.mohamadi@gmail.com
Funding information
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science,
Grant/Award Number: JP19KK0169
Abstract
Strawberry deterioration accelerates after harvesting when the fruit are exposed at am-
bient temperature. Therefore, it is imperative to utilize efficient methods to mitigate the
deterioration of fruit at ambient temperature. In the current study, harvested strawber-
ries were coated with Aloe vera gel either alone or mixed with essential oil from basil
plant. Coated strawberries were stored at ambient temperature (20°C) for 7 days and
successfully retained their postharvest quality during storage. Scanning electron mi-
croscopy was used to examine the fracture morphology of coated and uncoated fruits.
Application of coatings, specially the combination of Aloe vera with basil oil, reduced
weight loss, respiration rate, degradation of vitamin C, and color change. Additionally,
fungal growth was intensively prevented at room temperature. Finally, sensory analyses
revealed positive results for the coatings on visual aspect. The results demonstrated
that application of Aloe vera–­basil oil complex coating is an effective method to preserve
the postharvest quality and extend shelf life of strawberry fruit at room temperature.
Novelty impact statement:
• Combination of Aloe vera gel coating and basil oil preserved postharvest quality of
strawberry fruit at ambient temperature.
• Aloe vera gel coating enriched with basil oil reduced fungal growth in in vitro and
in vivo conditions at ambient temperature.
• Addition of basil oil to Aloe vera gel coating improved the efficacy of treatment at
ambient temperature.

1 |  I NTRO D U C TI O N role in determining postharvest quality because it regulates the

Quality is one of the most important factors in the selection of prod-
ucts. Fruits and vegetables by providing vital nutrients for health
and maintenance of the body contribute to any healthy diet in food
production chains. However, the perishability of these food catego-
ries is their main drawback in the development of food industries.
Hence, significant amounts of work have been carried out to explore
various solutions to maintaining the postharvest quality of fruits and
vegetables (Porat et al., 2018; Raghav et al., 2016; Schreinemachers
et al., 2018).
The quality of fresh fruits and vegetables heavily relies on en-
vironmental conditions such as temperature, humidity, and atmo-
sphere. Among environmental conditions, temperature plays a key
rate of all associated physiological and biochemical processes. After
harvest, significant properties such as the appearance, texture,
and nutritional values of fruits and vegetables undergo changes
at ambient temperature (~20°C) (Nunes, 2008; Porat et al., 2018).
Similarly, more rapid deterioration in harvested fruits could derive
from higher respiration and the growth of micro-­organism at am-
bient temperature. A temperature of 20–­25°C is preferential for
the growth of most storage fungi (Barkai-­G olen, 2001). This unde-
sirable condition could be limited at lower temperature, but con-
trolling the temperature at low level is not always easy or possible.
Therefore, new strategies for maintaining the quality of fresh fruits
and vegetables at ambient temperature are required to address
these practical problems.

J Food Process Preserv. 2021;00:e15836. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jfpp |

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2 of 12       MOHAMMADI et al.
Strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) is a popular fruit with high con-
sumer demand due to the levels of flavonoids, anthocyanins, and phe-
nolic compounds along with vitamins and fiber (Nasrin et al., 2017).
Additionally, strawberries are extensively used in desserts due to
their properties such as flavor, aroma, and attractive color (Llanos &
Apaza, 2018). However, the shelf life of strawberries at ambient tem-
perature is short (1–­2 days), leading to quick decay during storage, trans-
portation, and marketing. As a result, it is crucial to enhance the shelf life
of the fruit at ambient temperature (Cao et al., 2010; Shen et al., 2018).
Examination of strawberries after harvest reveals that the fruit
are continuously damaged by microbiological spoilage, and this dam-
age was estimated to impact approximately 20% of strawberries
(Etemadi et al., 2012). The proliferation of Botrytis cinerea fungi leads
to the formation of colonies on the host surface that is proportional
to the temperature increase (Ippolito & Nigro, 2000).
Natural edible coatings as a safe and eco-­friendly preservative
are now receiving significant attention to extend the shelf life and
delay deterioration in different kinds of fruits and vegetables (Dai
et al., 2020; Latifasari et al., 2019). By providing an external pro-
tective thin layer of edible material, edible coatings are capable
of mitigating the deterioration of a commodity. The coating layer
mainly contains polysaccharides, proteins, and lipids. The thin layer
of edible coatings is able to create a barrier to limit gas exchange and
moisture loss between the surface of the product and the external
environment (Thakur et al., 2018; Yan et al., 2019).
Aloe vera gel is a well-­known edible coating that is rich in polysaccha-
rides, soluble sugars, minerals, and proteins, but it has a low lipid content
(Maan et al., 2018). According to previous studies, coatings with low
lipid content suffer from low hydrophobic properties (Navarro-­Tarazaga
et al., 2008; Perez-­Gago et al., 2002). To overcome this problem, a
mixture with a lipid-­rich source, such as an essential oil, has been pro-
posed (Mohammadi, Hassanzade khanekahdani, et al., 2021; Tzortzakis
et al., 2019). Among various types of essential oils, basil oil offers an
economic and safe source of lipids, along with antimicrobial and antiox-
idant activities (Hemalatha et al., 2017). A mixture of Aloe vera gel and
basil oil provides a natural coating with improved barrier properties.
In a previous study, we utilized a new edible coating with Aloe vera gel
containing basil oil, which was able to delay senescence and preserve the
quality of strawberries at cold storage (4°C) (Mohammadi, Ramezanian,
et al., 2021). Given the importance of maintaining the quality of straw-
berry during transfer, storage, and marketing, it is important to exam-
ine this new edible coating at ambient temperature. Therefore, in this
study, we investigated the quality of harvested strawberries with Aloe
vera coating mixed with basil oil at ambient temperature (20°C storage).
2 |  M ATE R I A L S A N D M E TH O DS
2.1 | Plant materials
Strawberries used in this experiment were purchased from JA Itoshima,
Japan. Five hundred uniform strawberry fruit were collected. The uni-
formity was based on color, maturity, weight, and size (10–­13 g and
3–­4 cm) and without any damage. The selected fruit were split into
five groups. These groups were treated as follows: (a) control without
any treatment, (b) pure distilled water (DW), (c) Aloe vera gel alone (AV),
(d) Aloe vera gel mixed with 500 µl L−1 of basil oil (AVBO1), and (e) Aloe
vera gel mixed with 1,000 µl L−1 of basil oil (AVBO2). The four groups of
treated samples were immersed in each treatment solution for 5 min.
After treatment, the surface of the fruit was allowed to dry at room
temperature for 1 hr, then the fruit were placed in open cubic polyeth-
ylene containers (120 × 170 × 30 mm3) and stored at 20°C for 7 days
in an incubator (Yamato Scientific co., Ltd. Japan) with 150 L volume.
Leaves of Aloe vera were obtained from Chikugo, Fukuoka, Japan,
and transferred to the laboratory and used to prepare coatings in ac-
cordance with our previous study (Mohammadi et al., 2020). The gel
of Aloe vera was extracted manually and mixed using a blender (IFM-­
700 G, Iwatani, Japan). Next, the gel was pasteurized at 65°C for
30 min, and then immediately cooled in ice. Basil oil with 100% pu-
rity produced by Yuwn Inc. (Tokyo) in two concentrations of 500 and
1,000 µl L−1 was selected in accordance with the study of Marjanlo
et al. (2010) and mixed separately with three droplets of Tween-­8 0
(approximately 0.2 ml) to prepare AVBO1 and AVBO2, respectively.
Next, the mixtures were homogenized with Aloe vera gel in 100%
(Vahdat et al., 2012) using a rotor-­stator homogenizer (Ultra-­Turrax
T-­25, IKA-­Japan) for 2 min at 20,000 rpm.
Quality parameters such as weight loss, respiration, total soluble
solids (TSS), total acidity (TA), pH, vitamin C, color, growth of mold
in in vivo and in vitro conditions, and visual aspects were measured
at 1, 3, 5, and 7 days during ambient storage. We utilized 50 g of
strawberries (about 3–­5 fruit) for each replicate and with 3 replicates
per treatment.
2.2 | Analysis of basil essential oil
The basil essential oil constituents were identified using a gas chro-
matography mass spectrometer (JMS-­Q1050GC, JEOL Ltd, Japan)
equipped with a capillary column of 0.32 mm i.d., length 30 m, film
thickness 0.25 µm (HP-­5 column, Agilent Technologies Japan, Ltd.)
using an oven program of 50–­250°C at 4°C/min. Oils were diluted to
1.0% (v/v) with diethyl ether prior to analysis. Injection volume was
1 µl, and the carrier gas was helium. The composition analysis results
are shown in Table 1.
2.3 | Surface morphology
Scanning electron microscope (SEM-­
SU3500 Hitachi High-­
Tech,
Japan) imaging was used to examine the surface morphology of un-
treated sample and treated sample with the higher concentration of
basil oil (AVBO2) on the initial storage day. SEM samples were pre-
pared from the surface of fruit (10 × 10 mm2 slices) for untreated
and treated samples. The center of SEM samples was observed
using an accelerating voltage of 15 kV under variable pressure mode
(VP-­SEM).
MOHAMMADI et al. |
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TA B L E 1   Main compositions of basil essential oil and TSS was recorded. To record TA, 5 ml of strawberry juice was
titrated against 0.1 N NaOH using phenolphthalein as an indicator
Compound RT RA (%)
(Mustafa et al., 2014).
Eucalyptol 6:32 2.26
Estragole 12:16 16.34
Linalool 20:47 1.45
2.8 | Vitamin C and pH
Methoxy cinamaldehyde 23:19 0.15
Eugenol 24:44 0.01 To determine the vitamin C content, 2 ml of 1% starch solution was
Abbreviations: RA, value expressed as relative area percentages to total added to 5 ml of fruit juice mixed with 20 ml distilled water and ti-
identified compounds; RT, retention time. trated using potassium iodide as an indicator (Jafari et al., 2017). To
compare, the pH of all samples, the stage of a pH meter (LAQUA,
2.4 | Weight loss Taiwan) was purified with 5 ml of fruit juice, then the pH value was
monitored.
Strawberries were weighed for each replicate for sampling days dur-
ing storage. Weight loss was determined using the following formula:
2.9 | In vitro antifungal tests
( )
Wf − WN
[WL (%) ]N = × 100 (1)
Wf The fungi used in current study, Botrytis cinerea NBRC 100717, was
purchased from the National Institute of Technology and Evaluation,
where WL, Wf, and WN are weight loss, weight on the first day of stor- Japan, and was inoculated routinely onto potato dextrose agar (PDA)
age, and weight at 3, 5, and 7 days during storage, respectively. for 5 days at a temperature of 25°C.
The interaction between treatments (AV, AVBO1, and AVBO2)
and Botrytis cinerea mycelia growth on PDA was evaluated in in vitro
2.5 | Respiration rate conditions using the method of Ali et al. (2011). PDA media was
first provided in accordance with usual conditions and then steril-
In this study the respiration rate measurement of strawberry fruit ized using an autoclave at 121°C for 20 min. When the temperature
was followed using the method of Nasrin et al. (2017). First, straw- of the solution reached 60°C, separate treatments were applied to
berries samples (five strawberries totaling about 50 g per replicate) the PDA in liquid form in a volume ratio of 1:10 (90% PDA + 10%
were incubated in a 1 L sealed vacuum desiccator (three desicca- treatment in volume). Then, different solutions of PDA were poured
tors per treatments and control) at a temperature of 20°C for 3 hr. into individual 8.5-­cm diameter plates. Prepared medium without
Second, 1 ml of atmosphere from the head space of each desiccator any treatment was defined as the control. Three replicates were
was withdrawn using a gastight hypodermic syringe and analyzed conducted for each treatment and the control. To examine fungal
using a gas chromatograph (GC; GL Science GC390, Japan). The growth, incubated Botrytis cinerea mycelia (5 days old) were placed
quantity of CO2 was measured using a thermal conductivity detec- in the center of each plate with a sterile 5 mm diameter corkborer.
tor (TCD) on each sampling day. The GC was adjusted with a WG-­ Next, all plates were stored at 20°C and the fungal growth was mea-
100 column and settled at an oven temperature of 50°C, injector at sured after 1, 3, and 5 days of storage. The measurements stopped
80°C, and detector at 150°C. The results were expressed as mg CO2 after 5 days due to the complete development of mycelia on the con-
−1 −1
kg  hr for respiration rate (Paladins et al., 2014). trol media.

2.6 | Color change 2.10 | In vivo antifungal tests

The color (L*, a*, b*) of coated and uncoated strawberry fruit was re-
corded using a CR-­20 colorimeter in color mode with CIELAB (Konica
Minolta Japan Co., Ltd.) (Ali et  al.,  2015). Moreover, the hue angle
−1
(Hue°) was calculated as tan (b*/a*).
2.7 | TSS and TA
To assess the TSS content of samples, 5 ml of fruit juice was placed
on the light sensor plate of a digital refractometer (ATAGO, Japan)
To compare the antifungal activity of coated and uncoated straw-
berries, 120 strawberries were surface sterilized with sodium hy-
pochlorite (0.02%) for 2 min, washed in distilled water, and dried
at room temperature. Then, the samples were immersed in a spore
suspension of Botrytis cinerea (106 spores ml−1) for 2 min and dried
at room temperature (Vilaplana et al., 2018). Sixty fruits were
dipped in AVBO2 solution for 5 min and air-­dried at room tempera-
ture. Finally, the percent of rotten samples was compared between
coated and uncoated strawberries in 1, 3, 5, and 7 days at 20°C
storage.
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4 of 12       MOHAMMADI et al.
2.11 | Sensory evaluation
Sensory evaluation of all strawberries in the coated and uncoated
groups was investigated in accordance with the study of Paladins
et al. (2014). In this regard, 10 panelists including 5 men and 5 women
in 5 groups evaluated the visual aspect of samples during storage.
The scores for visual aspect quality were on a scale of 1 to 5 points: l
= very poor quality, 2 = poor, 3 = middle, 4 = good, and 5 = excellent.
2.12 | Statistical analysis
Data were subjected to variance analysis (ANOVA) with SAS 9.1
software. A factorial arrangement in a completely randomized de-
sign was employed with a mean value of three replicates. LSD at
p < .05 was used for means comparison.
3 |  R E S U LT S A N D D I S CU S S I O N
3.1 | Surface morphology
Figure 1 shows SEM images of the external epidermis of (a) uncoated
and (b) AVBO2-­coated strawberry fruit obtained on the initial day
of storage. Although the stomatal pores are clearly visible on the
surface of the uncoated fruit, they were not observed on the coated
fruit. Stomata play an important role in moisture loss and gas ex-
change between the fruit surface and environment (Galdon-­Armero
et al., 2018). The cover provided by the coating was able to limit the
transpiration and respiration rate and led to slowing down of senes-
cence. Similar observations were reported by Thakur et al. (2018) on
plum using a rice starch coating.
3.2 | Weight loss
The weight loss results indicated a gradual decrease during ambi-
ent storage. The maximum weight loss was obtained in the control
F I G U R E 1   Scanning electron microscope images of strawberry fruit surface, showing (a) an uncoated (control) and (b) a fruit coated with
AVBO2. White arrows indicate stomata
(5.69 ± 0.06) and DW-­treated samples (5.68 ± 0.14) compared with
samples coated with AV (5.44 ± 0.19), AVBO1 (5.34 ± 0.14), and
AVBO2 (5.17 ± 0.19) on the final day (Table 2). However, the previ-
ous experiment with cold storage at 4°C (Mohammadi, Ramezanian,
et al., 2021) showed a lower rate of weight loss over 7 days of stor-
age due to deceleration of dehydration at low temperature. The
higher temperature accelerated the respiration and transpiration
rates. Respiration leads to the loss of substrates such as sugars, and
transpiration is the cause of cellular dehydration, which in turn re-
duces the pressure on the cell wall and results in shrinkage in fruits.
Both of these processes contributed to fruit weight loss (Moshir
Rahman et al., 2016; Win et al., 2015). In this study, the main rea-
son for higher weight loss in the control sample and treated sample
with DW could be due to rapid moisture loss and gas exchange from
the unprotected surface of fruit during storage. In contrast, coated
samples displayed a lower weight loss due to mass transfer inhibi-
tion by the coating layers. These conclusions were in agreement with
the SEM observations. Application of the coating contributed to re-
duced loss of water vapor, leading to an extension of shelf life. This
important consequence is achieved by the hydrophilic/hydrophobic
properties of the edible coating (Mustafa et al., 2014). The lowest
reduction in weight loss of AVBO2 could be attributed to the higher
hydrophobic barrier efficacy, which was provided by the higher
basil oil concentration in the coating. In the other words, addition
of basil oil to Aloe vera was improved prevention of water vapor loss
with the polysaccharide-­based coating from the Aloe vera (Paladines
et al., 2014). This result was consistent with our earlier work with
cold storage of strawberry (Mohammadi, Ramezanian, et al., 2021)
and agreed with observations by Martinez Romero et al. (2017) on
plum by employing a mixture of Aloe vera gel coating and rosehip oil
with 20°C storage.
3.3 | Respiration rate
The respiration rate of all samples showed a rising trend during
ambient storage, as indicated in Figure 2. This increase was lower
in treated fruit than untreated fruit. Whereas, in the prior report
MOHAMMADI et al. |
      5 of 12

TA B L E 2   Interaction between time and treatment on weight (Mohammadi, Ramezanian, et al., 2021), cold storage suppressed the
loss (%) at 20°C storage duration respiration rate of all samples particularly coated samples. Indeed, a
Storage days higher storage temperature increased the rate of respiration, which
assisted with rapid fruit senescence (Misiri et al., 2014). During
Treatment 3 5 7
storage higher respiration rates were found in the control and DW
Control 2.30 ± 0.02aC 3.72 ± 0.4aB 5.69 ± 0.06aA samples, whereas the coatings reduced the respiration rate. The in-
DW 1.64 ± 0.10 bC 3.65 ± 0.12aB 5.68 ± 0.14aA crease in respiration rate with longer storage times was in agree-
AV 1.57 ± 0.18bC 3.63 ± 0.07aB 5.44 ± 0.19bA ment with the increase in metabolic activity of the samples, related
AVBO1 1.65 ± 0.60 bC
3.54 ± 0.08 aB
5.34 ± 0.14 bA
to tissue senescence and cell breakdown (Lin et al., 2011; Ncama
AVBO2 1.65 ± 0.31 bC
3.53 ± 0.07 aB
5.17 ± 0.19cA et al., 2018). The reduction in respiration rate could be due to the
prevention of gas exchange between fruit tissue and the environ-
Note: Means with the same letters are not significantly different
according to LSD (p < .05). Small letters are for the comparison ment (Thakur et al., 2018). This gas exchange consisted of a barrier
between treatments at each time point (column), and capital letters are and restriction to O2 and CO2 permeability through the fruit surface,
for the comparison between times in each treatment (row). which in turn caused internal atmosphere changes and reduce O2
Abbreviations: AV, Aloe vera gel alone; AVBO1, Aloe vera gel + 500 µl L−1 availability (Ali et al., 2014). The Aloe vera gel coating was shown to
basil oil; AVBO2: Aloe vera gel + 1,000 µl L−1 basil oil; DW, distilled water.
decrease the respiration rate in nectarine (Muhammad et al., 2009),
Ber (Mani et al., 2018), and guava (Rehman et al., 2020) at ambient
temperature. In the current study, a lower respiration rate was found
in AVBO2-­treated fruit. The direct effect of basil oil in Aloe vera gel
coating on reducing respiration rate could be explained by the fact
that the addition of basil oil at the higher concentration to Aloe vera
gel coating had significantly increased hydrophobic properties lead-
ing to inhibition of gas permeability. Hemalatha et al. (2017) found
that the addition of basil essential oil to chitosan increased the hy-
drophobic properties of the treatment. Similar to the result of our
study, it has been reported that the addition of rosehip essential oil
at 10% to Aloe vera gel reduced the respiration rate in sweet cherry
more than Aloe vera alone and mixed to rosehip oil at 2% during 20°C
storage (Paladins et al., 2014).

3.4 | TSS and TA

Fruit ripening can be examined by measuring the increase in TSS

F I G U R E 2   Respiration rate of strawberry fruit was affected by
the treatments: untreated (Control), distilled water treated (DW),
Aloe vera gel alone (AV), Aloe vera + 500 μl L−1 basil oil (AVBO1),
Aloe vera + 1,000 μl L−1 basil oil (AVBO2) by 20°C storage time.
Data are the mean ± SE
and decrease in TA (Ali et al., 2014). In the current study, TSS in
treated and untreated samples increased gradually during stor-
age. The increase in TSS in AVBO2-­
treated samples was lower
than other treatments (Table 3). TSS increases due to the break-
ing of long chains of carbohydrate compounds into dissolved sugar

TA B L E 3   Interaction between time and

Storage days
treatment on TSS (Brix) at 20°C storage
duration Treatment 1 3 5 7

Control 8.33 ± 0.88aB 9.67 ± 0.88aAB 10.67 ± 0.33aA 10.67 ± 0.33aA

aB aAB aAB
DW 8.33 ± 0.33 9.67 ± 0.88 10.00 ± 0.00 10.33 ± 0.33aA
AV 8.67 ± 0.88aA 10.00 ± 0.57aA 10.00 ± 0.57aA 10.33 ± 0.88aA
aB aAB aAB
AVBO1 7.67 ± 0.88 9.33 ± 0.66 9.33 ± 0.33 10.33 ± 0.66aA
AVBO2 8.67 ± 0.33aA 9.67 ± 0.33aA 10.00 ± 1.52aA 10.00 ± 0.00aA

Note: Means with the same letters are not significantly different according to LSD (p < .05). Small
letters are for the comparison between treatments at each time point (column), and capital letters
are for the comparison between times in each treatment (row).
Abbreviations: AV, Aloe vera gel alone; AVBO1, Aloe vera gel + 500 µl L−1 basil oil; AVBO2, Aloe vera
gel + 1,000 µl L−1 basil oil; DW: distilled water.
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6 of 12       MOHAMMADI et al.
compounds through normal respiratory and physiological processes
of fruit ripening, and increasing temperature accelerates this pro-
cess (Astuti et al., 2018; Maftoonazad & Ramaswamy, 2019) On the
other hand, the TA of all samples reduced slightly until the end of
storage, whereas fruit with the AVBO2 coating maintained the high-
est TA levels (Table 4). Although the change in TA of treated sam-
ples compared with untreated in our previous study in cold storage
was significant (Mohammadi, Ramezanian, et al., 2021), a moderate
change was observed among various treatments in ambient temper-
ature. TA is reduced by organic acid consumption in respiratory pro-
cesses, which occurs more quickly at higher temperature (Alharaty
& Ramaswamy, 2020; Astuti et al., 2018). The reason for the slight
retention of TSS and TA in AVBO2-­treated samples could be due to
limitation of the fruit respiration rate with the coating serving as a
gas barrier and suppressing oxygen uptake with the combination of
Aloe vera gel and the higher concentration of basil oil (Mohammadi
et al., 2020).
3.5 | Vitamin C and pH
Vitamin C is known as a water-­soluble antioxidant and is one of the
simplest vitamins in fruits that degrades after harvest with the activ-
ity of ascorbic acid oxidase enzyme in the presence of oxygen. The
rate of degradation of vitamin C was directly proportional to the time
of storage and temperature. The antioxidant property can increase
fruit resistance against abiotic and biotic stresses and decrease
oxidative damage (Mditshwa et al., 2017; Tavakoli et al., 2019). In
this study, vitamin C content of the treated and untreated samples
increased in the initial days of storage and then began to decline
until the end of storage. This reduction was slower in AVBO1-­and
AVBO2-­treated samples. The upward trend in vitamin C in the initial
days for all samples could be due to the continuous ripening pro-
cess of fruit, whereas vitamin C losses in the final days mainly arose
from autoxidation, which takes place immediately after ascorbic acid
combines with oxygen in the air (Sogvar et al., 2016). The pattern
of vitamin C content of treated and untreated fruits during stor-
age was in agreement with Mendy et al. (2019) who applied Aloe
vera gel coating on papaya. In current study, the higher retention of
Storage days
Treatment 1 3 5 7
aA aA
Control 0.075 ± 0.004 0.077 ± 0.007 0.070 ± 0.004
DW 0.074 ± 0.002aA 0.079 ± 0.002aA 0.077 ± 0.004aA
aA aA
AV 0.077 ± 0.004 0.085 ± 0.002 0.081 ± 0.004
AVBO1 0.081 ± 0.004aA 0.081 ± 0.005aA 0.081 ± 0.020aA
aA aA
AVBO2 0.081 ± 0.004 0.087 ± 0.002 0.083 ± 0.000
Note: Means with the same letters are not significantly different according to LSD (p < .05). Small
letters are for the comparison between treatments at each time point (column), and capital letters
are for the comparison between times in each treatment (row).
Abbreviations: AV, Aloe vera gel alone; AVBO1, Aloe vera gel + 500 µl L−1 basil oil; AVBO2, Aloe vera
gel + 1,000 µl L−1 basil oil; DW, distilled water.
vitamin C in AVBO1-­and AVBO2-­treated samples in the final days
of storage, as indicated in Figure 3, could be attributed to the ef-
ficacy of the coatings, which form a protective layer and inhibit the
uptake of oxygen (Ncama et al., 2018). Our findings in this study
were in agreement with previous studies on the effect of chitosan
treatment of harvested litchi fruit (Jiang et al., 2018) and Mandarin
fruit cv. Ponkan (Gao et al., 2018) at ambient temperature. The pH
of strawberry fruit demonstrated a gradual increase in treated and
untreated fruit with storage duration, which was in accordance with
the expectation (Table 5). Among all samples AVBO2-­treated fruit
had the lowest value at the end of storage. These results were similar
to our previous study on strawberry in cold storage (Mohammadi,
Ramezanian, et al., 2021).
3.6 | Color change
The L* value represents the luminosity of the fruit surface, and re-
duction in L* value indicates the loss of peel lightness of products.
In the present study, the L* value of samples changed significantly at
ambient temperature, and AVBO2-­treated fruit exhibited the small-
est reduction compared with others (Table 6). The hue angle of fruit
diminished continuously during the storage, which contributed to
fruit darkening (Tzortzakis et al., 2019). Application of a coating led
to no significant difference between coated and uncoated fruits at
the end of storage (Table 7), which could be indicative of the slow
maturing physiology of fruit in the current storage conditions (Ali,
Wei, et al., 2014). The color attributed to the a* value indicated the
shift from greenness to redness. The results of the a* value in Table 8
tended to increase during ambient storage, and the largest increase
observed in control and DW-­treated samples. After harvesting, one
of the most important factors that causes peel discoloration is oxi-
dation. Moreover, high temperature accelerated color changing and
darkening of fresh strawberry appearance by accumulation of an-
thocyanin. Applying a coating after harvesting maintained the visual
color of strawberry by preventing O2 uptake and mitigating meta-
bolic activities, which in turn lead to anthocyanin synthesis (Zhang
et al., 2019). Hence, higher retention of color in AVBO2-­treated fruit
could be due to the higher hydrophobic property of Aloe vera gel
TA B L E 4   Interaction between time and
treatment on TA (% citric acid) at 20°C
storage duration
aA
0.070 ± 0.007aA
0.075 ± 0.004aA
aA
0.075 ± 0.005aA
0.075 ± 0.010aA
aA
0.081 ± 0.007aA
MOHAMMADI et al. |
      7 of 12

(Martines-­romero et al., 2017) and persimmon with a gelatin-­based

coating containing frog skin oil in 25°C storage (Kingwascharapong
et al., 2020).

3.7 | In vitro antifungal activity

The antifungal activities of treatments on the growth of Botrytis ci-

F I G U R E 3   Vitamin C in strawberry fruit affected by treatments:
untreated (Control), distilled water treated (DW), Aloe vera gel alone
(AV), Aloe vera + 500 μl L−1 basil oil (AVBO1), Aloe vera + 1,000 μl L−1
basil oil (AVBO2) by 20°C storage time. Data are the mean ± SE
with basil oil at 1,000 µl L−1, which inhibited gas exchanging and oxi-
dation. Similar results have been observed in plum with the applica-
tion of Aloe vera gel coating containing rosehip oil in 20°C storage
nerea mycelium (germ tube elongation) on PDA medium in ambient
conditions are shown in Table 9. After incubation time, the highest
fungal growth was found in the control samples, whereas the least
growth was observed in AVBO2-­treated samples. This finding was
also observed previously (Mohammadi, Ramezanian, et al., 2021)
with cold storage for 12 days. The components and concentration
of essential oils can be effective in controlling microbial growth
(Tavakoli et al., 2019). It was noted that the fungicide properties of
essential oils increase with their increasing concentration (Vilaplana
et al., 2018). In addition, the combination essential oil with other
postharvest treatments could improve the efficacy of control of
postharvest pathogens (Lopez-­Reyes et al., 2010). In this study, re-
tarding fungal growth with the AVBO2 coating compared with other
treatments could be related to the presence of higher concentrations
of basil oil, and the antimicrobial activity of basil oil due to mainly
linalool and eugenol components (Abbas et al., 2018) as indicated in
Table 1. Moreover, the antimicrobial activity of Aloe vera gel could be

TA B L E 5   Interaction between time and

Storage days
treatment on pH at 20°C storage duration
Treatment 1 3 5 7
aA aA aA
Control 3.31 ± 0.09 3.21 ± 0.02 3.32 ± 0.04 3.36 ± 0.01aA
aAB aB aA
DW 3.27 ± 0.04 3.17 ± 0.02 3.35 ± 0.04 3.37 ± 0.04aA
AV 3.26 ± 0.07aA 3.26 ± 0.06aA 3.29 ± 0.05aA 3.36 ± 0.08aA
aA aA aA
AVBO1 3.26 ± 0.06 3.22 ± 0.08 3.27 ± 0.00 3.36 ± 0.04aA
AVBO2 3.24 ± 0.07aA 3.20 ± 0.07aA 3.25 ± 0.05aA 3.34 ± 0.05aA

Note: Means with the same letters are not significantly different according to LSD (p < .05). Small
letters are for the comparison between treatments at each time point (column), and capital letters
are for the comparison between times in each treatment (row).
Abbreviations: AV, Aloe vera gel alone; AVBO1, Aloe vera gel + 500 µl L−1 basil oil; AVBO2, Aloe vera
gel + 1,000 µl L−1 basil oil; DW, distilled water.

TA B L E 6   Interaction between time and

Storage days
treatment on L* at 20°C storage duration
Treatment 1 3 5 7

Control 42.2 ± 1.60aA 37.3 ± 2.92aB 37.3 ± 1.91aB 32.7 ± 2.30 cC

aA aAB aAB
DW 39.7 ± 1.20 36.4 ± 0.87 37.2 ± 0.49 33.7 ± 0.99bcB
AV 40.4 ± 0.56aA 37.9 ± 0.76aA 37.9 ± 1.85aA 36.0 ± 1.12bcA
aA aA aA
AVBO1 40.1 ± 0.97 39.1 ± 1.32 38.9 ± 0.65 37.2 ± 0.18abA
AVBO2 40.4 ± 0.91aA 38.9 ± 1.16aA 37.8 ± 1.55aA 38.2 ± 1.04aA

Note: Means with the same letters are not significantly different according to LSD (p < .05). Small
letters are for the comparison between treatments at each time point (column), and capital letters
are for the comparison between times in each treatment (row).
Abbreviations: AV, Aloe vera gel alone; AVBO1, Aloe vera gel + 500 µl L−1 basil oil; AVBO2, Aloe vera
gel + 1,000 µl L−1 basil oil; DW, distilled water.
 |
8 of 12       MOHAMMADI et al.

TA B L E 7   Interaction between time

Storage days
and treatment on Hue° at 20°C storage
Treatment 1 3 5 7 duration
aA aB bC
Control 2.16 ± 0.10 1.78 ± 0.28 1.39 ± 0.03 1.27 ± 0.03aC
DW 2.23 ± 0.06aA 1.72 ± 0.13aB 1.29 ± 0.04bC 1.29 ± 0.05aC
aA aAB abBC
AV 2.08 ± 0.12 1.90 ± 0.04 1.61 ± 0.09 1.44 ± 0.07aC
AVBO1 2.06 ± 0.08aA 1.86 ± 0.08aAB 1.64 ± 0.03abBC 1.46 ± 0.09aC
aA aB aBC
AVBO2 2.19 ± 0.09 1.84 ± 0.09 1.74 ± 0.03 1.52 ± 0.14aC

Note: Means with the same letters are not significantly different according to LSD (p < .05). Small
letters are for the comparison between treatments at each time point (column), and capital letters
are for the comparison between times in each treatment (row).
Abbreviations: AV, Aloe vera gel alone; AVBO1, Aloe vera gel + 500 µl L−1 basil oil; AVBO2, Aloe vera
gel + 1,000 µl L−1 basil oil; DW, distilled water.

TA B L E 8   Interaction between time and

Storage days
treatment on a* at 20°C storage duration
Treatment 1 3 5 7
aB aB bB
Control 40.3 ± 0.78 39.2 ± 1.05 39.3 ± 1.42 44.0 ± 0.29aA
DW 40.8 ± 0.39aB 39.9 ± 0.13aB 40.8 ± 0.41abB 43.8 ± 0.15aA
aB aB abAB
AV 40.2 ± 0.35 40.5 ± 0.18 40.97 ± 0.27 42.5 ± 0.18abA
AVBO1 40.6 ± 0.19aA 40.2 ± 0.21aA 41.01 ± 0.56abA 41.46 ± 1.23bA
aA aA aA
AVBO2 40.1 ± 0.50 40.6 ± 1.26 41.7 ± 0.01 41.14 ± 0.46bA

Note: Means with the same letters are not significantly different according to LSD (p < .05). Small
letters are for the comparison between treatments at each time point (column), and capital letters
are for the comparison between times in each treatment (row).
Abbreviations: AV, Aloe vera gel alone; AVBO1, Aloe vera gel + 500 µl L−1 basil oil; AVBO2, Aloe vera
gel + 1,000 µl L−1 basil oil; DW, distilled water.

TA B L E 9   Interaction between time and treatment on fungal 3.8 | In vivo antifungal activity
growth (mm) in vitro at 20°C storage duration

Storage days In this study, in vivo antifungal tests were conducted based on the
results of in vitro evaluations. In this regard, AVBO2 treatment
Treatment 1 3 5
was selected as an effective treatment for fungal growth inhibi-
Control 27.06 ± 1.01aC 60.15 ± 2.3aB 85.00 ± 0.00aA tion for the in vivo study. Figure 4 shows the results of Botrytis ci-
AV 26.49 ± 1.11aC 56.75 ± 3.11abB 84.08 ± 0.46abA nerea growth on fruit for uncoated and AVBO2-­coated samples for
AVBO1 25.42 ± 1.16aC 51.31 ± 2.70 cB 83.31 ± 0.18abA 7 days storage at 20°C. The symptoms of Botrytis cinerea started
AVBO2 25.77 ± 0.30 aC
53.37 ± 1.18 bcB
79.94 ± 0.72 bA to appear in both treated and untreated samples at day 1, and the
rotten area in untreated samples increased rapidly to about 60%
Note: Means with the same letters are not significantly different
according to LSD (p < .05). Small letters are for the comparison by day 7. In a previous study, no sign of fungal decay among the
between treatments at each time point (column), and capital letters are samples was observed due to the cold temperature (Mohammadi,
for the comparison between times in each treatment (row). Ramezanian, et al., 2021). In this study, application of AVBO2 coat-
Abbreviations: AV, Aloe vera gel alone; AVBO1, Aloe vera gel + 500 µl L−1
ing on strawberry fruit at 20°C demonstrated greater restriction of
basil oil; AVBO2, Aloe vera gel + 1,000 µl L−1 basil oil; DW, distilled water.
the rotten area compared with control samples. Microbial spoilage
occurs from the interaction of host resistance and pathogen activity,
due to the presence of aleonin and aloe-­emodin components (Rasouli and this interaction increases with temperature (Alam et al., 2020;
et al., 2019). Previous studies reported that the antimicrobial mecha- Liu et al., 2017). Additionally, the antifungal activity of essential
nism of essential oils relies on their hydrophobic properties and oils could depend on the interaction of their components (Lopez-­
their partition in cytoplasmatic microbial membranes, which leads to Reyes et al., 2010). Therefore, the prevention of mold growth on
structural disorder (Bal et al., 2012; Nikkhah & Hashemi, 2020). This AVBO2-­treated samples could be due to the antimicrobial activity
is in agreement with study of Hemalatha et al. (2017), who showed of the coating compound such as aleonin and aloe-­emodin in Aloe
the efficacy of chitosan films with basil essential oil on fungi growth vera gel (Flores-­López et al., 2016) and linalool and eugenol in basil
in in vitro conditions with ambient storage. oil (Duman et al., 2010) (Table 1) as explained in the in vitro section.
MOHAMMADI et al.
F I G U R E 4   Fungal growth in vivo (rotten area, percentage)
affected by treatment: untreated (control), Aloe vera + 1,000 μl L−1
basil oil (AVBO2) by 20°C storage time. Data are the mean ± SE
This result was consistent with previous studies reported by Navarro
et al. (2011) on nectarine and Kingwascharapong et al. (2020) on
persimmon.
3.9 | Sensory evaluation
Based on panelist scores, the application of coatings maintained
the external visual aspect of strawberry compared with uncoated
samples during ambient storage (Figure 5). At the end of storage,
control and DW-­t reated fruit received lower scores of 1.8 ± 0.2
and 1.6 ± 0.24, respectively, whereas AV, AVBO1, and AVBO2
were associated with higher scores of 3.4 ± 0.24, 3.4 ± 0.24, and
3.2  ± 0.2, respectively (p  < .05). The key factor contributing to
the higher acceptance of coated fruit was the brighter surface
color. A lower value for the visual aspect of uncoated samples
could be related to the rapid senescence processes, whereas the
coating played an important role in the reduction of senescence.
Additionally, the pigment synthesis rate and anthocyanins level
could also be impacted by elevated temperature (Cordenunsi
et al., 2005). As a result, post-­harvested ripe strawberry fruit lost
brightness rapidly at ambient temperature due to faster moisture
loss and senescence processes (Romanazzi et al., 2016; Zhang
et al., 2019) which resulted in less attractive appearance. Applying
a coating could improve loss of water, respiration rate, and delay
senescence.
4 | CO N C LU S I O N S
The present study showed that application of Aloe vera gel alone and
mixed with basil oil delayed the senescence of strawberry fruit dur-
ing storage at 20°C for 7 days. In particular, the addition of basil oil
|
      9 of 12
F I G U R E 5   Sensory evaluation (visual aspect) of strawberry is
affected by treatments: untreated (Control), distilled water treated
(DW), Aloe vera gel alone (AV), Aloe vera + 500 μl L−1 basil oil
(AVBO1), Aloe vera + 1,000 μl L−1 basil oil (AVBO2) by 20°C storage
time. Data are the mean ± SE. Scores (1–­5) shown in “Materials and
Methods” section
at 1,000 µl L−1 to Aloe vera gel reduced weight loss and respiration
more than other treatments and prevented surface color change.
This treatment offered beneficial inhibition in in vitro and in vivo
analyses of fungal infection at ambient temperature and led to an ac-
ceptable score in sensory evaluation compared with uncoated sam-
ples. Furthermore, the addition of basil oil at both concentrations to
Aloe vera increased the efficacy of the coating to inhibit vitamin C
degradation.
AC K N OW L E D G E M E N T S
This work was financially supported by the Japan Society for the
Promotion of Science (JSPS) (No. JP19KK0169).
C O N FL I C T O F I N T E R E S T
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
AU T H O R C O N T R I B U T I O N S
Leila Mohammadi: Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal anal-
ysis; Investigation; Methodology; Resources; Software; Writing-­
review & editing. Fumina Tanaka: Project
original draft; Writing-­
administration; Supervision; Validation; Visualization; Writing-­
review & editing. Fumihiko Tanaka: Supervision; Writing-­review &
editing.
DATA AVA I L A B I L I T Y S TAT E M E N T
The data that support the findings of this study are available from
the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
ORCID
Leila Mohammadi  https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5393-9773
 |
10 of 12       MOHAMMADI et al.

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How to cite this article: Mohammadi, L., Tanaka, F., & Tanaka, F.
(2021). Preservation of strawberry fruit with an Aloe vera gel
and basil (Ocimum basilicum) essential oil coating at ambient
temperature. Journal of Food Processing and Preservation, 00,
e15836. https://doi.org/10.1111/jfpp.15836