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Romanazzi G., Feliziani E., Santini M., Landi L.,

2013. Effectiveness of postharvest treatment
with chitosan and other resistance inducers in
the control of storage decay of strawb...

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 Postharvest Biology and Technology 75 (2013) 24–27

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Research note

Effectiveness of postharvest treatment with chitosan and other resistance

inducers in the control of storage decay of strawberry
Gianfranco Romanazzi ∗ , Erica Feliziani, Marilla Santini, Lucia Landi
Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, Marche Polytechnic University, Via Brecce Bianche, 60131 Ancona, Italy

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This study compared the effectiveness of practical grade chitosan when used in solution with acetic, glu-
Received 5 June 2012 tamic, formic and hydrochloric acids, and a water-soluble commercial chitosan formulation, in controlling
Accepted 22 July 2012 postharvest diseases of strawberry. The commercial chitosan formulation and other resistance inducers
based on benzothiadiazole, oligosaccharides, soybean lecithin, calcium and organic acids, and Abies sibir-
Keywords: ica and Urtica dioica extracts were also tested. The commercial chitosan formulation was as effective
Botrytis cinerea
as the practical grade chitosan solutions in the control of gray mold and Rhizopus rot of strawberries
Fragaria × ananassa
immersed in these solutions and kept for 4 days at 20 ± 1 ◦ C. Moreover, the treatment with commercial
Penicillium spp.
Postharvest diseases
and experimental resistance inducers reduced gray mold, Rhizopus rot and blue mold of strawberries
Resistance inducers stored 7 days at 0 ± 1 ◦ C and then exposed to 3 days shelf-life. The highest disease reduction was obtained
Rhizopus stolonifer with the commercial chitosan formulation, followed by benzothiadiazole, calcium and organic acids. The
compounds that provided the best results in postharvest applications to control storage decay of straw-
berries, should be tested in further trials through preharvest treatments, applied at flowering and a few
days before harvest.
© 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction In conventional agriculture, these diseases are usually managed

Strawberries are a particularly perishable fruit during posthar-
vest storage, susceptible to drying, mechanical injury, decay and
physiological disorders. Gray mold and Rhizopus rot are caused
by Botrytis cinerea (Pers.) and Rhizopus stolonifer (Ehrenb.), respec-
tively, and they are the main causes of postharvest decay of
strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) (Maas, 1998). The infection
of the fruit by gray mold can be ascribed to an infection on the flow-
ers in the field. The B. cinerea fungus remains latent underneath the
sepals until fruit ripening, and then close to or after harvest it can
turn from a saprophyte into a parasite (Powelson, 1960). The dis-
ease often starts close to the pedicel, and at times also in wounds
on the fruit produced during harvest, resulting in its colonization.
B. cinerea can also develop at low temperatures (even at 0 ◦ C), with
the consequent shortening of the length of storage and marketing.
Rhizopus rot can spread at temperatures greater than 4–6 ◦ C, and it
is more common on fruit exposed to rain in the field or grown under
plastic tunnels in several rows, when located at their border. Both
of these diseases spread quickly to other fruit, a phenomenon that
is known as nesting. Infections from Penicillium spp. (blue mold)
and Mucor spp. (Mucor rot) also occur occasionally (Maas, 1998).
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +39 071 2204336; fax: +39 071 2204856.
E-mail address: g.romanazzi@univpm.it (G. Romanazzi).
by fungicide treatments that are applied around flowering, and are
repeated up to harvest, depending on the disease pressure and the
preharvest interval of the formulation. However, in organic agri-
culture and after harvest, the use of synthetic fungicides is not
permitted, so there is a need for alternatives. Among these, the
use of resistance inducers has the potential for large-scale applica-
tion. Resistance inducers can increase plant defenses, and at times
can also exploit their antimicrobial properties. Among the natural
compounds, chitosan has received much interest for application in
agriculture and for the food industry. Chitosan can decrease gray
mold and Rhizopus rot of strawberries through the reduction of
mycelial growth and spore germination, and induction of morpho-
logical alterations in the causal organisms (El Ghaouth et al., 1992).
Moreover, chitosan acts as a potent elicitor, to enhance plant resis-
tance against pathogens (Amborabé et al., 2008). Chitosan needs
to be dissolved in dilute acid solution to exploit its properties, and
several acids can dissolve this biopolymer, the best of which are
acetic, hydrochloric, glutamic and formic acids (Romanazzi et al.,
2009). So far, there are no data on the effectiveness in the control
of postharvest decay of strawberry of commercial chitosan for-
mulations, either alone or compared with practical grade chitosan
dissolved in dilute acids.
A number of resistance inducers are available on the market
today. Benzothiadiazole (BTH or acibenzolar-S-methyl) is an elic-
itor of systemic-acquired resistance in plants. It is a photostable

0925-5214/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.postharvbio.2012.07.007
 G. Romanazzi et al. / Postharvest Biology and Technology 75 (2013) 24–27
analog of salicylic acid, and it has proven to be effective in the
management of gray mold of strawberry (Terry and Joyce, 2000;
Muñoz and Moret, 2010). Oligosaccharides can also elicit plant
defenses, and their presence on host tissue can simulate the pres-
ence of pathogens and activate the plant responses (Shibuya and
Minami, 2001). Abies sibirica and Urtica dioica extracts are available
as commercial and experimental formulations, respectively, and as
with some other plant extracts, they have recently gained popular-
ity and scientific interest for their possible antimicrobial activities
(Velázquez del Valle et al., 2008; Gatto et al., 2011).
The objectives of this study were: (i) to compare the effec-
tiveness in the control of postharvest diseases of strawberry of
solutions obtained by dissolving practical grade chitosan in acetic,
glutamic, formic and hydrochloric acids, and of the water-soluble
commercial chitosan formulation and (ii) to evaluate the effective-
ness of a commercial chitosan formulation, and benzothiadiazole,
oligosaccharides, soybean lecithin, calcium and organic acids, and
extracts of A. sibirica and U. dioica in the control of postharvest decay
of strawberries.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Fruit
Trials were carried out on the strawberry cultivar ‘Camarosa’
(Fragaria × ananassa Duch) in commercial orchards located in the
Marche region, central-eastern Italy, grown according to the stan-
dards of organic agriculture. The fruit were selected for the absence
of defects, uniformity in size, and degree of ripening (2/3 red on the
surface) (Rosati and Cantoni, 1993), and were used for the experi-
ments on the day of harvest.
2.2. Resistance inducers
The effectiveness in the control of postharvest strawberry dis-
eases of chitosan dissolved in different acid solutions, and of the
commercial chitosan formulation was tested. Crab shell chitosan
(Sigma Chemical Co., St. Louis, MO, USA) was ground to a fine
powder in a mortar, washed with distilled water, pelleted by low-
speed centrifugation, and air-dried. For experimental use, four
different 1% solutions (w/v) of chitosan were prepared by dis-
solving the chitosan in 1% (v/v) acetic, hydrochloric, glutamic or
formic acids under continuous stirring, to obtain chitosan acetate,
chloride, glutamate and formate (Romanazzi et al., 2009). When
dissolved, the pH of the chitosan solution was adjusted to 5.6 using
1 N NaOH, and 0.05% (w/v) Triton X-100 surfactant was added to
improve the wetting properties of these solutions. A commercial
chitosan-based formulation, known as Chito Plant (ChiPro GmbH,
Bremen, Germany), was prepared by dissolving the powder (1%,
w/v) directly in distilled water 2 h before use. Distilled water was
used as the control.
The effectiveness of different commercial resistance inducers
in the control of postharvest strawberry diseases was com-
pared. These were based on chitosan (Chito Plant, 1%, w/v),
oligosaccharides (Algition, Socoa Trading, Bologna, Italy; 1%, v/v),
benzothiadiazole (Bion, Syngenta Crop Protection, Switzerland;
0.2%, w/v), calcium and organic acids (Fitocalcio, Agrisystem,
Lamezia Terme, CZ, Italy; 1%, v/v), soybean lecithin (Xedabio, Certis,
Saronno, VA, Italy; 1%, v/v), an A. sibirica extract (Abies, Agritalia,
Villa Saviola di Motteggiana, MN, Italy; 1%, v/v) and an experimental
formulation based on a U. dioica extract (1%, w/v). This last com-
pound was obtained by infusion of U. dioica leaves in water (10%,
w/v) for one month, with the macerate filtered through a double
layer of cheesecloth, and then diluted 1:10 in deionised water.
25
2.3. Treatments
Strawberries were pooled together and randomized, and then
immersed for 10 s in a 5 L volume of the respective solutions. Straw-
berries immersed in deionised water were used as the control. After
the treatments, the fruit were dried in air for 1 h, and then indi-
vidually arranged in small plastic boxes. These were then placed
in covered plastic boxes and stored for 7 days at 0 ± 1 ◦ C, 95–98%
RH, and then exposed to 3 days shelf-life at 20 ± 1 ◦ C, 95–98% RH.
Five replicates of 30 strawberries were used for each of the treat-
ments. The infections which subsequently developed resulted from
naturally occurring inoculum.
2.4. Data recording
During the storage, the percentage of decayed strawberries was
recorded. Disease severity was also recorded according to an empir-
ical scale with six degrees: 0, healthy fruit; 1, 1–20% fruit surface
infected; 2, 21–40% fruit surface infected; 3, 41–60% fruit surface
infected; 4, 61–80% fruit surface infected; 5, more than 81% of the
strawberry surface infected and showing sporulation (Romanazzi
et al., 2000). The empirical scale allowed the calculation of the McK-
inney’s index, expressed as the weighted average of the disease as a
percentage of the maximum possible level (McKinney, 1923). This
parameter also includes information on both disease incidence and
disease severity.
2.5. Experimental design and statistics
The trials were arranged in a completely randomized design,
and each experiment was repeated at least twice. Data from two or
more experiments were pooled, as the statistical analysis to deter-
mine the homogeneity of variances was tested using Levene’s test
(SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). To normalize the data, the appropriate
transformations were determined empirically using normal prob-
ability plots. The arcsin of the square root of the proportion was
applied to the decay incidence data. The values were submitted
to analysis of variance and the means were separated by Duncan’s
Multiple Range Test (SuperANOVA, Abacus Concepts, Inc., Berkeley,
CA, USA). Actual values are shown.
3. Results and discussion
Research to reduce fungicide applications in agriculture through
the discovery of new natural antimicrobials is needed to meet the
growing consumer demand for food without chemical preserva-
tives and to respond to the needs of sustainable farming. Due to
the nontoxic and biocompatible properties of chitosan (Wu et al.,
2005), it has been considered a candidate for substitution of fungi-
cides in horticultural cultivation (Bautista-Baños et al., 2006). The
main difference between the practical grade chitosan solutions and
the commercial chitosan formulation arises from the techniques of
their preparation. Indeed, to dissolve the chitosan in the various
acids, it is necessary to prepare the solutions 2 days in advance and
to monitor and adjust the pH; in contrast, the commercial chitosan
formulation can be prepared only 1–2 h before application, just by
dissolving the powder in water. Moreover, the resulting solution
with the commercial chitosan formulation has a lower viscosity
compared to chitosan acetate, so it can be applied more easily in the
field using standard sprayers. These details are relevant when the
practical application is proposed, as farmers can easily and quickly
prepare and apply the compound at the field scale. In our work,
strawberries immersed in chitosan acetate, chloride, glutamate and
formate, and in the commercial chitosan formulation, showed sig-
nificant reduction of gray mold and Rhizopus rot decay, as well as
26 G. Romanazzi et al. / Postharvest Biology and Technology 75 (2013) 24–27

Table 1
Decay, disease severity and McKinney index of gray mold and Rhizopus rot recorded on strawberries treated with solutions obtained by dissolving practical grade chitosan
in acetic, glutamic, formic and hydrochloric acids, and with commercial chitosan formulation. The fruit were kept for 4 days at 20 ± 1 ◦ C, 95–98% RH.

Treatment Decay (%) Disease severity (1–5) McKinney index (%)

Gray mold Rhizopus rot Gray mold Rhizopus rot Gray mold Rhizopus rot

Control 91.8 A 93.0 A 4.6 A 4.8 A 84.5 A 89.3 A

Chitosan acetate 37.4 B 14.1 B 3.1 B 3.7 B 23.2 B 10.4 B
Chitosan chloride 51.3 B 29.9 B 3.2 B 3.4 B 32.8 B 20.3 B
Chitosan formate 43.1 B 25.9 B 3.4 B 3.4 B 29.3 B 17.6 B
Chitosan glutamate 44.7 B 25.6 B 3.4 B 3.6 B 30.4 B 18.4 B
Commercial chitosan 43.0 B 19.3 B 3.5 B 3.6 B 30.1 B 13.9 B

Values with the same letter are not statistically different according to Duncan’s Multiple Range Test at p < 0.01.

reduced severity and McKinney index, when compared to the con-
trol after 4 days shelf-life at 20 ± 1 ◦ C (Table 1). The treatments with
chitosan acetate, chitosan formate, the commercial chitosan, chi-
tosan glutammate and chitosan chloride provided McKinney index
reductions in gray mold of 73%, 65%, 64%, 64% and 61% respectively,
and of Rhizopus rot of 88%, 80%, 84%, 79% and 77% respectively, as
compared to the control. However, no significant differences in dis-
ease control were observed for the solutions obtained starting from
practical grade chitosan compared to the commercial chitosan for-
mulation. In these trials, significant infections of blue mold were
not observed.
The treatment of the strawberry slices with chitosan acetate
significantly decreased hydrogen peroxide production at 2, 4 and
6 h after treatment, as compared to the untreated control (data
not shown). Chitosan solutions have antioxidant capacity, like
hydrogen peroxide scavengers, and the use of chitosan as an antiox-
idant and anti-browning agent is widespread in the food industry
(Devlieghere et al., 2004). The oxygen radicals scavenging capaci-
ties, the levels of phenylpropanoid compounds, and the antioxidant
enzyme activity increased in strawberries after the treatment with
chitosan (Wang and Gao, in press).
On strawberries cold-stored 7 days (0 ± 1 ◦ C) and then exposed
to 3 days shelf-life (20 ± 1 ◦ C), the reductions, as compared to the
control, in the McKinney index for gray mold were 79%, 73%,
70%, 63%, 60%, 56% and 46% for the fruit treated with com-
mercial chitosan, benzothiadiazole, calcium with organic acids,
oligosaccharides, Abies extract, soybean lecithin, and Urtica extract,
respectively and for blue mold were 90%, 84%, 71%, 61%, 59% and
31% for the fruit treated with commercial chitosan, benzothiadia-
zole, calcium with organic acids, Abies extract, Urtica extract and
oligosaccharides, respectively. Only treatments with chitosan and
calcium with organic acids reduced the McKinney Index of Rhizo-
pus rot, respectively of 84% and 79%, as compared to the control
(Table 2).
Chitosan has a dual effect on host–pathogen interactions
through its antifungal activity and its ability to induce plant defense
responses (Romanazzi, 2010). Moreover, as chitosan can form an
edible film when applied to the surface of fruit and vegetables,
it is clearly effective in conferring a physical barrier to moisture
loss, delaying dehydration and fruit shriveling. Therefore, its coat-
ing can prolong storage life, delay the drop in sensory quality,
and control the decay of strawberry fruit (Han et al., 2004; Park
et al., 2005; Chaiprasart et al., 2006; Hernández-Muñoz et al., 2006;
Ribeiro et al., 2007). Chitosan coating can be used as a vehicle
for incorporating functional ingredients, such as antimicrobials or
nutraceutical compounds that could enhance the effects of chi-
tosan coating or reinforce the nutritional value of the strawberries
(Vargas et al., 2006; Vu et al., 2011; Perdones et al., 2012). Pos-
itive effects of treatment with practical grade chitosan coating
on the decay of strawberries artificially inoculated with B. cinerea
and R. stolonifer and held at 13 ◦ C have been shown (El Ghaouth
et al., 1992). Preharvest sprays of practical grade chitosan signif-
icantly reduced postharvest fungal rot of strawberries stored at
3 ◦ C and 13 ◦ C and maintained the quality of the fruit compared
to the control (Reddy et al., 2000). In the same way, preharvest
and postharvest treatments with practical grade chitosan on straw-
berries reduced the postharvest gray mold and Rhizopus rot after
storage at 0 ± 1 ◦ C followed by shelf-life at 20 ± 1 ◦ C (Romanazzi
et al., 2000).
Benzothiadiazole is a functional analog of salicylic acid and an
acquired systemic resistance activator that can elicit activation of
genes involved in plant defense and pathogenesis-related proteins
(Lawton et al., 1996; Vallad and Goodman, 2004). Our results are
in agreement with Terry and Joyce (2000), who reported the pos-
sibility to delay the development of gray mold on strawberry fruit
held at 5 ◦ C by about 1.2-fold, through single or multiple preharvest
foliar treatments at anthesis with benzothiadiazole, with no phy-
totoxic effects seen for either fruit or plant. Postharvest treatment
of strawberries with benzothiadiazole induced disease resistance
by enhancing fruit antioxidant systems and free radical-scavenging
capabilities (Cao et al., 2011).
In the formulation where composition is based on calcium and
organic acids, the calcium reinforces the structural composition of
the plant cell wall through the binding of pectins with salts, and

Table 2
Decay, severity and McKinney index of gray mold, Rhizopus rot and blue mold recorded on strawberries treated with commercial and experimental resistance inducers. The
fruit were stored for 7 days at 0 ± 1 ◦ C, 95–98% RH, followed by 3 days of shelf life at 20 ± 1 ◦ C, 95–98% RH.

Treatment Decay (%) Disease severity (1–5) McKinney index (%)

Gray mold Rhizopus rot Blue mold Gray mold Rhizopus rot Blue mold Gray mold Rhizopus rot Blue mold

Control 63.5 a 48.9 a 56.9 a 4.2 a 3.8 a 3.8 a 53.3 a 44.8 a 40.8 a
Abies extract 29.8 bc 36.2 ab 28.3 bc 2.2 c 3.8 a 2.9 abc 21.2 bc 29.6 ab 16.0 bc
Oligosaccharides 29.0 bc 36.3 ab 40.4 ab 3.4 ab 2.5 a 3.4 ab 19.7 bc 32.8 ab 28.0 b
Benzothiadiazole 25.1 c 20.8 ab 12.6 cd 2.9 bc 2.2 a 1.6 bc 14.6 bc 15.2 ab 6.4 c
Chitosan 20.4 c 8.6 b 4.8 d 2.7 bc 1.8 a 1.0 c 11.1 c 7.2 b 4.0 c
Ca-organic acids 23.5 c 12.7 ab 28.5 bc 3.4 b 1.6 a 2.2 abc 16.0 bc 9.6 b 12.0 c
Urtica extract 44.6 b 24.2 ab 28.2 bc 2.9 bc 2.3 a 1.9 abc 27.9 b 13.6 ab 16.8 bc
Soybean lecithin 36.8 bc n.d.a n.d.a 3.2 b n.d.a n.d.a 23.6 bc n.d.a n.d.a

Values with the same letter are not statistically different according to Duncan’s Multiple Range Test at p < 0.05.
a
Disease not developed in the trials in which the compound was used.
 G. Romanazzi et al. / Postharvest Biology and Technology 75 (2013) 24–27
therefore provides more resistance during the manipulation and
transport of fruit. Calcium is one of the most widely used treatment
alternatives to fungicides with table grapes, with the aim to protect
the berries from preharvest and postharvest gray mold, and it is
used in both organic and conventional agriculture (Romanazzi et al.,
2012).
When oligosaccharides are applied to plants, these can sim-
ulate the presence of a pathogen and thus induce plant defense
responses (Chisholm et al., 2006). These compounds derived from
the degradation of plant cell-wall polysaccharides are one class of
well characterized elicitors that, in some cases, can induce defense
responses at very low concentrations (Shibuya and Minami, 2001).
In the present study, the application of soybean lecithin was
tested as a resistance inducer. Hoa and Ducamp (2008) reported
that treatments with soybean lecithin delayed mango ripening dur-
ing storage at ambient temperatures, thus slowing the changes of
the biochemical ripening indicators. Lecithin could also work as an
antioxidant, since hydrogen peroxide content in strawberry tissues
treated with lecithin was reduced compared to the control (data not
shown). In the food industry, soybean lecithin is normally used as a
natural and non-toxic compound with antioxidant properties, and
it is approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration
for human consumption, with the status of “Generally Recognized
As Safe”.
Over the last few years, there has been increasing interest for
research into plant extracts for their antimicrobial actions and their
safe application (Gatto et al., 2011). The activity of the A. sibir-
ica extract could be due to its triterpene acids, which act as plant
growth regulators and facilitate cell division and shoot regenera-
tion (Korolev et al., 2003). From the present study, the A. sibirica
extract appears to have good antimicrobial activity. The U. dioica
extract has also been shown to have antimicrobial and antioxidant
effects (Gülçin et al., 2004), and here we show its antimicrobial
properties, as it reduced gray and blue molds. Moreover, this U.
dioica extract is used by organic farmers, who claim that they can
achieve a reduction in aphid numbers.
Among these formulations tested, the commercial chitosan
formulation and benzothiadiazole provided the highest disease
reduction, which indicates their possible application in IPM.
Resistance inducers also have the advantage of triggering wide-
spectrum resistance, for activity against several classes of plant
pathogen and pest (Inbar et al., 1998). However, further studies
are needed to better understand the mechanisms of action of these
resistance inducers, and the appreciation from the consumers of
treated fruit.
Acknowledgement
The research was granted by EUBerry Project: EU FP7 KBBE
2010-4, Grant Agreement No. 265942.
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