Search Results (118)

Postharvest bacterial spoilage poses a major threat to global food safety, which is particularly prominent for fruits with high moisture and nutrient contents. Hence, environmentally friendly and efficient antibacterial solutions are urgently needed. Carbon dots (CDs) exhibit promising antibacterial potential in fruit preservation. Upon screening, coffee-husk-derived carbon dots (CS-CDs) were identified to possess highly efficient antibacterial activity. In this work, CS-CDs were synthesized via a one-step hydrothermal method. The as-prepared CS-CDs have an average particle size of 2.0 nm, and their surfaces are rich in carboxyl, hydroxyl and amino groups, delivering distinct photoresponsive capacity. Antibacterial assays reveal that the inhibitory rates of CS-CDs against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus both exceed 95%. The bactericidal effect is mainly realized by reactive oxygen species and physical contact, which disrupt bacterial cell membranes and trigger cellular damage. Meanwhile, CS-CDs are verified to possess favorable biosafety for practical application. Finally, CS-CDs were successfully incorporated into carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) to fabricate CS-CDs/CMC composite films with superior mechanical properties compared with pure CMC films. Film-property analyses demonstrate their suitability for fresh-fruit preservation packaging. Continuous monitoring and analysis of fruit quality during litchi and mango storage confirm the preservation and anti-spoilage performance of the composite film. This study provides a promising alternative to conventional synthetic preservatives and metal-ion-based antibacterial agents, offering advantages of environmental friendliness, high antibacterial efficiency, favorable biocompatibility, and reliable biosafety. Meanwhile, it provides a feasible strategy for the design and application of biomass-based antibacterial preservation-packaging materials. Full article

Automatic classification of Ataulfo mango (Mangifera indica L.) ripeness is essential to ensure consistent quality, standardize post-harvest processes, and reduce the subjectivity of traditional visual inspection, which is unreliable and error-prone. This paper aims to develop a computationally efficient image classification system for Ataulfo mango ripeness by combining explicit color and texture feature extraction with a traditional machine learning model, thereby reducing the high computational costs typically associated with deep convolutional architectures. For this purpose, a dataset containing 10,400 images was created and divided into four maturity categories: green-ripe, partially ripe, firm-ripe, and soft-ripe. We select an optimal Multilayer Perceptron trained on compact 33-dimensional feature vectors and compare its performance with classical machine learning algorithms and pretrained deep neural networks, including MobileNetV2, MobileNetV3, and ResNet18. Our proposal achieves an accuracy of 0.8821, a macro-F1 score of 0.8784, and an AUC of 0.9751, which are better than those of classical classifiers and MobileNet-family models, while reducing computational cost by three orders of magnitude (GFLOPs). The ResNet18 model achieved a 3.56% relative improvement in macro-F1 score compared to our proposal, but its computational cost increased by four orders of magnitude in GFLOPS. In all evaluated architectures, the remaining classification errors occur between adjacent maturity stages and likely reflect the visual similarity inherent in the continuous ripening process. These findings demonstrate that manual feature engineering and model selection via hyperparameter tuning remain highly competitive and more sustainable for low-cost edge implementations in agriculture. Full article

Mango is prone to postharvest microbial infection, which leads to deterioration. Although essential oils show great potential for antibacterial and antioxidant applications, their effectiveness is limited by poor stability. In this study, cellulose nanocrystal (CNC)-stabilized Amomum tsaoko essential oil emulsion (AEO–CNC) was incorporated into a pullulan (Pul) matrix through hydrogen bonding to prepare antibacterial films. A stable AEO–CNC emulsion was obtained by precisely adjusting the AEO concentration. The effects of emulsion incorporation on microstructure evolution, molecular interactions, physiochemical properties, and biological functionalities of Pul-based composite films were systematically investigated, and their preservation effect on mango was evaluated. With the increasing incorporation of AEO Pickering emulsion, the ultraviolet-blocking property (transmittance <30%), antioxidant capacity (46.83%), and antibacterial activity of PP-CNC-AEO films were significantly improved. In addition, these films exhibited excellent mechanical properties (tensile strength of 30.62 MPa) and thermal stability. The PP-CNC-AEO films had a more uniform and compact surface structure, with no bubbles and fewer internal pores, which indicates the formation of an effective cross-linked network. When PP-CNC-50%AEO-F was used to preserve mango, it reduced weight loss, delayed the increase in soluble solids, and postponed the post-ripening process, exhibiting strong potential for extending the shelf life of fruit. Full article

Post-harvest losses of mango (Mangifera indica L.) in developing economies are estimated at 5% to 30%, largely due to manual management practices that depend on subjective visual assessments. This paper proposes a lightweight deep learning architecture, termed SE-DBIRNet, for real-time classification of mangoes into five shelf-life stages: unripe, semi-ripe, fully ripe, overripe, and perished. The model incorporates three key design strategies: (i) depthwise separable convolutions, achieving an 88.5% reduction in parameters when integrated into the ResNet50 backbone; (ii) a double-branch inverted residual (DBIR) module designed to enhance feature diversity and richness; and (iii) a squeeze-and-excitation (SE) attention mechanism for adaptive channel-wise recalibration. Using a public benchmark dataset of 4428 RGB images (Mendeley Data) under 10-fold cross-validation, SE-DBIRNet achieved 98.24% accuracy. Among lightweight CNN architectures (EfficientNetB0, MobileNetV2, ResNet50), SE-DBIRNet outperformed the best lightweight baseline (EfficientNetB0: 96.57%) by 1.67 percentage points. While dedicated attention-based DenseNet variants (e.g., DSA-DenseNet: 99.20%) achieved higher accuracy, SE-DBIRNet offers a superior trade-off among accuracy, inference speed (56.9 ± 1.8 FPS), and memory efficiency (8871 ± 45 MB CPU memory). EigenCAM activation visualizations revealed that the model focuses on biologically relevant and stage-discriminative features, including surface color gradients, texture uniformity, lenticel patterns, and decay boundaries. Overall, SE-DBIRNet achieves a Pareto-optimal balance among accuracy, speed, and memory efficiency, making it a strong candidate for real-time, edge-deployable post-harvest mango quality-monitoring systems, particularly when computational resources are limited. Full article

Chilling injury is a major problem limiting the postharvest storage and marketability of mango fruit at low temperature. The present study investigated the individual and combined effects of sodium nitroprusside (SNP), L-arginine (Arg) and salicylic acid (SA) on chilling tolerance, regulation of oxidative stress and the postharvest quality of ‘Keitt’ mango fruit stored at 5 ± 1 °C for 28 days followed by 4 days of shelf life at 23 °C. Fruits were pre-treated with 1 mM SNP, 1 mM Arg, 2 mM SA or their binary combinations before storage. The chilling injury, membrane damage, lipid peroxidation, protein oxidation and fruit softening were greatly enhanced by cold storage in untreated fruits. In contrast, all the treatments significantly ameliorated these deteriorative changes, and the combined treatments were superiorly effective. Among these, SNP + Arg was the most effective treatment, which reduced the chilling injury index from 4.05 in control fruits to 1.00 after shelf life, completely inhibiting the incidence of decay and reducing electrolyte leakage and malondialdehyde accumulation by 47.4 and 48.2%, respectively. The same treatment also maintained higher firmness, titratable acidity, visual appearance and ascorbic acid content than untreated fruits. The enhanced chilling tolerance was accompanied by increased antioxidant defense, as SNP + Arg significantly stimulated the activities of superoxide dismutase, catalase and peroxidase, but suppressed the activity of pectin methylesterase. Multivariate analyses, such as PCA, clustered heatmap and integrated stress index, demonstrated a strong negative relationship between oxidative stress markers and antioxidant metabolism. The results showed that combined SNP and Arg treatments enhanced chilling tolerance through increasing antioxidant capacity, preserving membrane integrity, and retarding ripening-related metabolism, which provides an effective way to maintain the postharvest quality of cold-stored mango fruit. Full article

Bactrocera correcta is an important quarantine pest of mango, and the development of phytosanitary treatments that achieve quarantine security without compromising fruit quality remains a major challenge in fresh-fruit trade. Heat treatment is a residue-free phytosanitary option, but the temperatures required to control fruit flies often approach the tolerance limits of tropical fruit, leaving a narrow margin between quarantine security and commodity injury. In this study, a phosphine (PH₃)-assisted forced hot-air treatment was evaluated for the phytosanitary disinfestation of B. correcta in mango fruit. The developmental progression of B. correcta in mango fruit was characterized, the heat tolerance of different developmental stages was compared, and the efficacy of PH₃ followed by forced hot-air treatment (PH₃→Heat) against eggs was quantified using probit time–mortality analysis. Large-scale confirmatory validation and postharvest quality assessment were then conducted. Eggs were identified as the most heat-tolerant stage. PH₃ pre-fumigation significantly enhanced forced hot-air treatment, with 0.7 g m⁻³ PH₃ providing the most practical improvement at quarantine-relevant endpoints. According to this schedule, LT_99.9968 was reduced by 44 min for heat treatment alone, from 269.0 to 224.5 min, and the large-scale validation yielded no survivors. Postharvest quality evaluation showed that PH₃→Heat did not adversely affect firmness, total soluble solids, or titratable acidity during shelf life. These results demonstrate that PH₃-assisted forced hot-air treatment is a technically feasible and commercially promising phytosanitary strategy for mango fruit. Full article

To investigate the differences in reactive oxygen species (ROS) metabolism and signal transduction between the illuminated and non-illuminated surfaces of mangoes exposed to red light, this study used “Tainong No.1” mangoes as the test material, setting up three groups: mango exposed to red light, mango without red light and mango in darkness. The study measured maturity physiological indicators, ROS content, antioxidant enzyme activity, non-enzymatic substances, and combinations with DIA proteomics analysis. The results showed that red light exposure promoted the overall ripening of mangoes, and there was almost no difference in ripening between mango exposed to red light and mango without red light. Red light mainly induced rapid accumulation of hydrogen peroxide in the peel of the irradiated area and stimulated the synthesis of superoxide anion in the pulp. The antioxidant capacity of both the irradiated and non-irradiated areas was enhanced. Key proteins in the ROS signaling pathways such as Rab11, LRK-RLK, and PIN3 were significantly upregulated. In summary, red light promotes synchronous ripening of mango fruits by coordinately regulating the ROS homeostasis of the tissue, and provides new insights into the use of light signals for regulating fruit metabolism. Full article

Durian (Durio zibethinus Murr.), a renowned tropical fruit crop, is increasingly cultivated in the Hainan Province of China. In June 2025, symptoms of postharvest fruit rot were observed on durian fruits from a commercial orchard in Sanya City, Hainan Province, with a disease incidence of approximately 5.2%. Three fungal isolates were obtained and identified as Lasiodiplodia pseudotheobromae and L. lignicola based on morphological characterization and multi-locus phylogenetic analysis (combining ITS, TUB2, and EF1-α gene sequences). Pathogenicity assays confirmed both species as causal agents of durian postharvest rot, with rapid lesion expansion and eight tropical fruit hosts, including banana and mango, posing a threat to postharvest storage. Fungicide sensitivity tests showed imazalil and imazalil sulfate with mean EC₅₀ values of 0.07 µg/mL and 0.08 µg/mL as most effective, followed by prochloraz, iprodione, and prochloraz-Mn. L. lignicola was more sensitive to most fungicides than L. pseudotheobromae. These findings underscore the need for species-specific fungicide strategies in disease management. This is the first report of L. pseudotheobromae and L. lignicola causing durian postharvest rot in this preliminary study from Hainan. With Hainan emerging as a key production region, further research is essential to develop effective control measures against this economically significant disease. Full article

Anthracnose, caused by Colletotrichum sp. isolate XCC1, is a major postharvest disease causing significant quality deterioration and economic losses in ‘Cat Chu’ mango during storage. This study evaluated the effectiveness of sodium alginate–carboxymethyl cellulose (SA-CMC) coating with natamycin for controlling anthracnose and maintaining postharvest fruit quality. Mango fruits were treated with the SA-CMC-Natamycin coating and stored under controlled conditions (25 ± 2 °C; RH = 60 ± 5%) to assess disease development, plant defense enzyme activities, and fruit quality attributes. Natamycin inhibited spore germination of Colletotrichum sp. isolate XCC1 with a Minimal Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) of 6.25 µg mL⁻¹. The SA-CMC-Natamycin coating significantly reduced anthracnose development, resulting in a three-fold decrease in disease incidence and a 3.86-fold reduction in disease severity compared with the control on day 9 of storage. However, the persistence of the treatment was limited since no significant disease incidence reduction was observed after 15 days. The treatment also enhanced chitinase (CHI) and β-1,3-glucanase (GLU) activities and increased phenolic compound accumulation. In addition, the coating delayed fruit ripening by maintaining firmness, titratable acidity (TA), vitamin C, and chlorophyll while suppressing increases in color change and total soluble solids (TSS). These results demonstrate that SA-CMC-Natamycin coating is a promising eco-friendly strategy for controlling anthracnose and preserving postharvest quality of ‘Cat Chu’ mango. Full article

Mango (Mangifera indica L.), being a climacteric fruit, is highly perishable due to rapid ripening and post-harvest diseases like anthracnose, which significantly shorten its shelf life and limit long-distance sea export. To mitigate these constraints, a chemical-free secondary metabolite-based formulation (SMsF) was developed to delay ripening and control post-harvest anthracnose during storage. The SMsF possesses dual-action properties and is derived from the culture filtrate of Priestia aryabhattai, exhibiting ACC deaminase activity that restricts ethylene formation. It is also rich in antifungal compounds such as vanillic acid, hydroxybenzoic acid, cryptochlorogenic acid, palmitic acid, and BBIT, which inhibit anthracnose development. Additionally, it contains antioxidants including quercetin, coumaryl quinic acid, oleic acid, and acetylglycitin that enhance shelf life and disease resistance. The efficacy of SMsF was evaluated in mango cv. Banganapalli was stored at 12 ± 1 °C and 85–90% relative humidity under simulated reefer conditions (SRC). Integration of gamma irradiation with SMsF provided superior results in disease control and shelf-life extension. The combined treatment maintained higher fruit firmness (0.86 kg cm⁻²), optimal total soluble solids (14.3 °B), desirable acidity (0.22%), and complete suppression of anthracnose (PDI = 0) up to 40 days of storage under SRC compared with the control. The findings conclusively demonstrate that the synergistic application of SMsF and gamma irradiation effectively regulates ripening, enhances fruit quality, and ensures complete disease suppression, thereby significantly extending storage life. This approach holds strong scientific and commercial significance as a sustainable, residue-free, and export-oriented technology capable of improving long-distance transportation, reducing post-harvest losses, and promoting safe mango trade. Full article

In response to the growing need for sustainable and safe postharvest strategies, plant essential oils have emerged as promising natural alternatives to synthetic fungicides. Mango (Mangifera indica L.), as a vital tropical fruit, suffers significant postharvest losses due to anthracnose caused by Colletotrichum gloeosporioides. This study investigated the antifungal efficacy of oregano essential oil (OEO) against C. gloeosporioides and its regulatory effects on the postharvest quality of mango fruit. The potent antifungal activity of OEO is demonstrated by its low MIC (0.005%) and MFC (0.01%) against C. gloeosporioides. The antifungal mechanism was primarily attributed to the disruption of plasma membrane integrity of C. gloeosporioides, as indicated by increased propidium iodide uptake, elevated extracellular conductivity, and leakage of cellular proteins. The OEO treatment inhibited peel color transformation, reduced weight loss, maintained firmness, and slowed the increase in the soluble solids content to acidity ratio. Furthermore, OEO enhanced the fruit’s antioxidant capacity by sustaining higher superoxide dismutase activity and suppressing the activities of polyphenol oxidase and peroxidase, leading to a marked reduction in malondialdehyde accumulation. These findings comprehensively demonstrate the dual functionality of OEO as a direct fungicidal agent and a systemic physiological regulator that delays senescence and preserves mango quality. This study underscores the potential of OEO as a sustainable alternative for integrated postharvest management of mango anthracnose, offering insights for its practical application in the fruit industry. Full article

A novel plant nutrient media was developed from vermicompost through microbial organisms and organic soil obtained from mango orchards. The novel nutrient media was evaluated to assess the efficacy of the novel media as both a sole and integrated nutrient source for flower production of marigold (Tagetes erecta L.) cv. Pusa Basanti in sandy loam soil. The results demonstrated that marigold flower yield was maximized when the novel plant nutrient media comprised 50% of the novel nutrient media combined with the recommended dose of chemical fertilizers, compared to chemical fertilizers alone. Post-harvest soil analysis revealed that treatments with this novel nutrient media, both alone and in combination with inorganic fertilizers, significantly enhanced nutrient availability (NPK), increased soil organic carbon content, and improved microbial activity and soil enzyme function. Principal component analysis identified flower yield per plant, number of flowers per plant, and seed yield as key variables explaining maximum variability, suggesting these traits as primary selection criteria for performance optimization, and the treatments T4 (78.01) and T5 (85.15) had the highest positive scores on PC1, indicating superior performance for yield-contributing traits. These findings indicate that integrating novel nutrient media into agricultural practices could provide developing countries with an effective strategy for addressing the environmental challenges associated with excessive inorganic fertilizer use while maintaining crop productivity. Full article

Manual mango variety classification is time-consuming, error-prone, and contributes significantly to post-harvest losses in developing economies. This study aims to develop a computationally efficient and highly accurate artificial intelligence framework for automated mango variety classification suitable for real-time applications. Eight deep transfer learning models were evaluated as feature extractors and combined with ten classical machine-learning classifiers. Model performance was assessed using accuracy, log loss, memory usage, training time, and inference latency. The hybrid models EfficientNetB0–Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) and ResNet50–Logistic Regression achieved 100% test accuracy while reducing inference time by up to 330 times compared to full Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) models. These findings demonstrate that hybrid deep-learning and machine-learning architectures can deliver state-of-the-art accuracy with substantially lower computational cost. Future research will focus on large-scale real-world validation and embedded hardware deployment for industrial fruit sorting systems. Full article

Post-harvest losses of ‘Cruiser’ cantaloupe reach ~15% in arid regions of Mexico, representing substantial wasted water and embedded greenhouse-gas emissions. This study presents an open-access, low-temperature maceration protocol for converting cosmetically rejected fruit into a carotenoid-rich spirit at rural scale. A 5-day maceration at 20 °C (15% pulp, 20% v/v ethanol) preserved color, β-carotene, and antioxidant capacity over 90 days of storage. Shelf-life predictions beyond this period are model-based and require long-term validation. Trained assessors characterized the beverage with a favorable aromatic profile driven by fruity esters and floral terpenes. Life-cycle results indicated lower cradle-to-gate impacts than reference mango spirits, and composting of pomace generated a mature soil amendment. A simplified techno-economic scenario suggests potential for rural processing but excludes taxation, licensing, and regulatory compliance; thus, economic feasibility cannot yet be confirmed. Overall, this study provides a proof-of-concept pathway for valorizing cantaloupe waste through low-temperature maceration and identifies critical analytical, regulatory, and economic aspects needed for future scale-up. Full article

Anthocyanins are important secondary metabolites that impart color to fruits, and their biosynthesis is regulated by light. AP2/ERF transcription factors represent one of the largest TF families in plants and play pivotal roles in regulating plant growth and development, secondary metabolism, and stress responses. However, their comprehensive profile in mango (Mangifera indica L.) and their role in mango anthocyanin biosynthesis remain largely unclear. In this study, genome-wide identification and analysis of the AP2/ERF gene family in mango were conducted. A total of 240 family members were identified and classified into five subfamilies. Phylogenetic tree, conserved motif, and gene structure analyses revealed high conservation within the same subfamily and significant divergence among different subfamilies. Synteny analysis indicated that segmental and tandem duplication events played a major role in the expansion of the MiAP2/ERF family. Organ-specific expression profiles based on RNA-seq data uncovered the expression patterns of MiAP2/ERF genes in different plant organs. Furthermore, RNA-seq analyses related to light-induced anthocyanin accumulation, including preharvest “bagging–debagging” treatment and postharvest UV-B/white light and blue light treatments, identified a subset of MiAP2/ERF genes with significant light-responsive trends. The expression patterns of six blue-light-induced MiAP2/ERF genes were validated by means of qPCR. In summary, this study provides a comprehensive theoretical characterization of the AP2/ERF family in mango and reveals its potential role in light-induced anthocyanin accumulation, thereby establishing a solid theoretical foundation for subsequent investigations into gene functions and molecular mechanisms. Full article