Effect of hot water, essential oil and edible coating on postharvest quality of Mexican lime inoculated by Penicillium digitatum

According to evaluations, the main cause of green mold rot in Mexican lime fruit is Penicillium species, particularly P. digitatum. In order to non-chemically control green mold, shoots of savory plants were collected at the flowering stage and essential oil was extracted after drying using a Clevenger apparatus by the hydro-distillation method. The spore of Penicillium digitatum was separated from the infected Mexican lime fruit and following purification of a single spore, it was cultured on a PDA medium. In this experiment, fruit inoculated by spores were treated by 7 treatments including savory essential oil (800 and 1000 µL L^‑1), hot water (40 and 50°C) and edible coating of gum Arabic (2.5 and 5%) and water (as control) for 5 min with three replications. The treated fruit was packaged in polyethylene bags and then kept at 8°C and 85% RH for 4 weeks. Based on the results, the highest amount of phenol was found in fruit treated with savory essential oil (800 µL L^‑1). The quality of the treated fruit was maintained better compared to the control treatment. The most ascorbic acid content and the lowest TSS/TA ratio were found in fruit treated with hot water at 40°C and savory essential oil, respectively.