Persimmon fruits are often affected by large postharvest losses due to rapid ripening and the early onset of senescence. To reduce such losses in fresh fruits, the application of hydrocolloid-based edible coatings was conducted. Therefore, a plant hydrocolloid-based gum, tragacanth gum (TCG), was applied to persimmon fruits at 0.5%, 1%, and 1.5% TCG concentrations, and stored at 20 ± 2 °C and 80–85% relative humidity for 20 days (analysis at 0, 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 20th day). As a result of TCG application on persimmon fruits, there were greatly suppressed respiration rates, ethylene production, weight loss, decay incidence, and H₂O₂ and malondialdehyde content. In addition, TCG-coated persimmon fruits had higher concentrations of bioactive compounds including phenols, flavonoids, carotenoids, ascorbic acid, and soluble tannin. Higher enzymatic antioxidant activities and lower softening enzyme activities were also recorded for TCG-coated persimmon fruits. Uncoated persimmon fruits quickly lost fruit quality attributes like color, firmness, taste, and aroma during storage compared to coated ones. Based on our findings, the use of TCG, especially at the concentration of 1% TCG, can be recommended to be applied as the edible coating to maintain the nutritional, biochemical, and commercial quality of persimmon fruits during ambient storage.

Climacteric rise in the rate of respiration and ethylene production in harvested persimmon (Diospyros kaki) fruits leads to early onset of fruit tissue senescence. Therefore, this study was carried out to maintain the quality of stored persimmons by using edible coatings. For this purpose, Aloe vera gel was combined with food hydrocolloids, gum arabic or tragacanth gum, and applied on persimmon fruits that were stored for 20 days at 20 ± 1 °C and 80–85% RH. Biocomposite coatings, compared to control, remarkably reduced weight loss, decay incidence, respiration rate, ethylene production, electrolyte leakage, malondialdehyde, H₂O₂ and superoxide anion content in stored fruits. The use of composite coatings inhibited colour change by reducing the accumulation of total carotenoids, maintained higher antioxidative enzymes activity and suppressed the activity of cell wall degrading enzymes, resultantly preserving cell wall components. Composite coated fruits exhibited the least change in biochemical attributes and higher sensory scores in comparison with non-coated fruits at the end of the storage period. In conclusion, Aloe vera gel/gum arabic was the most effective coating treatment before storing persimmons.

Climate change is an important concern worldwide. This huge change is causing a negative impact on crop productivity throughout the whole world and shows some drastic effects on sensitive crops including sweet pepper and other kinds of chilies. These stresses have a negative effect on vegetable growth, fruit quality, and fruit yield. Besides these stresses, accurate planting time is the utmost factor in increasing the crop potential and its productivity. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the optimal planting date and best-performing cultivar for sweet pepper to maximize crop productivity, growth, yield, and fruit shelf life under the impacts of climate change. The experiment was conducted in Multan, Pakistan (30° 25 N and 71° 30 E). In this experiment, four planting dates (10 January, 25 January, 10 February, and 25 February) with three cultivars (Ganga, Winner, and Savio) were grown with three replications (each year) during 2020 and 2021. Our findings showed that plant growth, fresh and dry biomass, yield, and yield attributes were statistically higher in earlier plantings, and lower in delayed planting. Regarding the cultivars in both years, ‘Winner’ performed better in all growth and yield parameters as compared to other growing cultivars. Lower weight loss and decay incidence were reported in ‘Winner’ cultivar. Additionally, ‘Winner’ cultivar showed a higher sensory score as compared to the other cultivar in both years. From the results, we conclude that the nursery of sweet pepper plants should be planted on the 25 January to attain higher crop productivity, and the cultivar ‘Winner’ showed promising effects so it should be planted for better yield.

The authors would like to make the following corrections to the published paper