Plant-based Biomaterials is being focused on to Improve the Preservation Quality of Vegetables

Academician of European University of Lefke (EUL) Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Technologies Department of Horticultural Production and Marketing Assist. Prof. Dr. İbrahim Kahramanoğlu, and Faculty Members Assist. Prof. Dr. Serhan Usanmaz and Assist. Prof. Dr. Turgut Alas participated in the 4th Pomiculture Balkan Symposium and presented their notice titled “Improving the Preservation Quality of Mulberry Fruit using Bio-Materials”.

Kahramanoğlu, who participated in symposium which is held for the fourth time, stated that in parallel with the rapid increase in the world population, agricultural areas and water quality has decreased and consequently the post-harvest preservation of foods gained great importance for sustainable nutrition. In his statement, Kahramanoğlu underlined that currently, 10-15% of the products produced in developed countries and 20-40% in developing countries deteriorate before reaching the final consumer. He further stated that fresh fruits and vegetables are not preferred by consumers due to residual problems and possible negative effects of chemicals used to increase storage quality and storage time after harvest and added that recent studies have focused on environmental and human-friendly, plant-based biomaterials.

Bio-materials maintain post-harvest quality of fruits

Kahramanoğlu underlined that products such as propolis, black seed oil, oregano oil, Eucalyptus oil, Aloe vera and lemongrass oil prevent post-harvest losses and maintain quality by improving storage time in products such as pomegranate, strawberry, cucumber and apricot. Pointing out that there are many studies in this field conducted by other scientists, Kahramanoğlu stated that harvested fruits and vegetables are still alive and continue to breathe after harvest. Within this framework, he pointed out that the quality of the harvested fruits and vegetables can be maintained without slowing down respiration, and added that sweating also has an important impact on quality. He further said that “In the light of this information, it has been determined that the preservation period can be prolonged by forming a protective layer on the materials of vegetable origin, fruits and vegetables”.

Eggshell extract extends storage time of fresh mulberry fruits

Kahramanoğlu said that, in the last symposium he attended, they analyzed the effect of protective material produced by dissolving egg shells in vinegar, black cumin oil, tülümbe oil on the preservation of fresh mulberry fruits. He further added that as a result of the study, black cumin oil which has been very successful in terms of pomegranate fruit has not been successful, tülümbe oil has achieved moderate success and materials produced from eggshell have achieved significant success and pointed out that this was due to the different physiology and biology of the different fruits. Kahramanoğlu emphasized that human beings endanger the environment and their future with the technology and chemicals developed by themselves, and he also stated that human beings can produce natural solutions for many problems and that his own works are examples of this.