Sustainable Utilization of Potato Industry Waste for Antifungal Biopolymer Production by Lactobacillus helveticus and Its Application on Pomegranates (Punica granatum L.)

Moushumi Ghosh (), Divya Chouhan, Aishwarya Kamra and Vivek Sharma
Additional contact information
Moushumi Ghosh: Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology
Divya Chouhan: Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology
Aishwarya Kamra: Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology
Vivek Sharma: Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology

Circular Economy and Sustainability, 2021, vol. 1, issue 4, 1297-1312

Abstract: Abstract The present study reports the characterization of an extracellular polymer produced by a strain of Lactobacillus helveticus in potato waste medium and the subsequent application of the biopolymer for protecting farm-bruised pomegranates against fungal infection following harvest. Chemical, thermogravimetric analysis, FTIR and scanning electron micrographs of the purified biopolymer revealed it to be a polysaccharide with good thermal stability and a compact structure. Purified biopolymer exhibited strong antifungal properties against the fungal pathogen Penicillium implicatum. In tissues of pomegranates, subjected to fungal challenge, pectinase, cellulase and xylanase activity indicative of infectivity was not observed upon storage for 14 days at 28 °C. Besides visual discoloration of pomegranates, characteristic of soft rot and fungal growth of tissue extracts could not be detected on PDA plates. Postharvest parameters, physiological loss of weight, TA, TSS, TSS/TA ratio, ascorbic acids, total sugars and sensory attributes in the biopolymer dipped bruised pomegranates challenged with P. implicatum, showed no significant (p > 0.05) change following storage. P. implicatum challenged bruised fruits which lacked dipping treatment was spoiled by 48 h. Farm-bruised pomegranates dipped with biopolymer offered complete protection of the bruised pomegranates upon storage for 14 days at ambient temperature (28 °C). Overall, the results of this study suggest a sustainable use of potato processing wastes for the reutilization of 5–16% of damaged pomegranates, economically beneficial to farmers. Besides, the process will have strong importance in reducing and recycling potato industry wastes for innovative postharvest applications for other horticultural produces.

Keywords: L. helveticus; P. implicatum; Pomegranates; Antifungal; Spoilage; Shelf life; Postharvest (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s43615-021-00120-2 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:circec:v:1:y:2021:i:4:d:10.1007_s43615-021-00120-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.springer.com/journal/43615

DOI: 10.1007/s43615-021-00120-2

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Circular Economy and Sustainability from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().