Effects of Plant Essential Oils Treatment Combined with Chitosan Coating on Fresh-keeping of Post-harvested Chestnuts

The purpose of this paper is to explore a better method to improve the fresh-keeping effect of post-harvested chestnuts under the background of that they are ones of the most difficult nuts to store. The effects of three treatments, including 1.5% chitosan coating(treatment 1^st), compound essential oil treatment(treatment 2^nd), and compound essential oil treatment combined with chitosan coating(treatment 3^rd), on chestnuts were investigated taken ‘Xiangli 4^#’ chestnuts as materials under (0±1)℃ and RH85%~90% for 150 d, and room temperature for insect suppression test for 75 d. Compared with the control group, except the treatment 1^st without anti-insect effect, the fresh-keeping effect of each treatment group was obviously better than that of the former. The treatment 3^rd had better effect of prohibiting mold and insect growth, inhibiting calcification, maintaining Vc content and the activity of CAT and SOD, reducing the MDA than that of the treatment 1^st and treatment 2^nd. The rate of chestnuts with commodity quality of treatment 3^rd was up to 93% on 150^th day. The results obtained in this study indicated that the treatment of compound plant essential oils combined with chitosan coating was a promising technique for fresh-keeping of post-harvested chestnuts.