Abstract
Banana is a perishable climacteric fruit that undergoes rapid ripening, resulting
in significant postharvest losses. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of
Opuntia ficus-indica mucilage (OFIM) enriched with moringa extracts from different
drying methods in preserving bananas during storage. A factorial experiment
was conducted, where bananas were treated with OFIM, OFIM (3%, w/v) enriched
with 3% of sun-dried moringa extract (OFIM + SD ME), oven-dried moringa extract
(OFIM + OD ME), or freeze-dried moringa extract (OFIM + FD ME) moringa extract.
Control fruit were immersed in distilled water, while the treated fruit was coated
for 2–3 min and stored at 21 ± 2 °C. Quality attributes, including weight loss, decay
incidence, respiration rate, greenness (a*), yellowness (b*), firmness, ion leakage, total
soluble solids (TSS), titratable acidity (TA), total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid
content (TFC), radical scavenging activity (RSA) and ferric reducing antioxidant power
(FRAP) were measured every four days. Results revealed that OFIM + OD ME exhibited
the lowest weight loss (9.85%), ion leakage (39.11%), TSS (5.91°Brix) and maintained
TA (0.08%) whilst OFIM + FD ME reduced decay incidence (22.22%), respiration rate
(6.70 mL CO2/kg/h) and maintained firmness (26.47 N), TPC (398.67 μg CAE/ mL), TFC
(49.25 μg CAE/ mL), RSA (59.23 mmol/L TE/mL), and FRAP (28.16 mmol/L TE/mL) of
banana compared to all treatments. The control group was terminated at 8 d, OFIM
and OFIM + SD at 12 d, whilst OFIM + FD ME and OFIM + OD ME extended storage
up to 16 d. OFIM + FD ME demonstrated the highest efficacy in preserving banana
quality. Thus, OFIM + FD ME is recommended for extending shelf life, maintaining
postharvest quality, and reducing fruit spoilage and waste.