Effect of Aqueous Extract of Tea Seed Powder on Quality of Citrus sinensis L. Osbeck in Cold Storage Conditions

Maintaining the nutritional value and increasing the shelf life of citrus, fruit coating is important. Currently, small gardeners in the north of Iran to rising storage time and maintain fruit quality, use unconventional methods or materials. The use of natural and organic material to produce a healthy product free of contaminants is rising. Tea seed powder is the by-product of tea seeds after oiling, which has no negative or harmful effects on the environment and use on farms as an organic insecticide. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate the effect of different concentrations of aqueous extract of tea seed powder on quantitative and qualitative characteristics of Citrus sinensis L. Osbeck. This research was done in the type of completely randomized design with five coating treatments as control (distilled water), commercial wax (XEDASOL- MX20), and three concentrations of aqueous extract of tea seed powder as 5, 10, and 15% w/v with three replications. After coating, the fruits were stored for 60 days in a cold house at 8 oC and 85% humidity. The weight of the shell, the juice content, the total soluble solids, the total acidity, and the anthocyanins concentration of the fruit were measured. The results showed that fruits coated with commercial wax had the lowest fruit weight loss. The treatments for tea seed powder extract are also significantly different from the control, and the treatment of 15% tea seed extract had the least weight loss. Fruits impregnated with commercial wax had the highest percentage of total soluble solids that did not significantly different from the tea seed powder extract but had 15% more total soluble solids than the control treatment. The fruits impregnated with commercial wax have the highest content of anthocyanins. The use of 5 and 10% tea seed extract has also had a positive and significant effect on the concentration of anthocyanins compared to control. As a result, it can state that the aqueous extracts of tea seed powder, compared to the control, improve and preserve the properties of the blood orange of the Moro cultivar during the post-harvest period. Therefore, tea seeds products can be promoted as an alternative to chemical pesticides currently used in ordinary warehouses.