Background

Pesticides have a negative impact on the health of consumers and on the environment, and as a consequence, the use of naturally occurring antimicrobial agents have become more popular to prevent food spoilage. An alternative is the use of chitosan, because of its antimicrobial, antioxidant activities and its capacity to form films having good mechanical properties. Chitosan has been used in the preparation of films and coatings for the preservation of different food products, and the addition of essential oils have been shown to be a good strategy to improve its antimicrobial activity in situ.

Scope and approach

This review compiles information related to studies and research that employ chitosan as matrix for films, coatings and nanogels with essential oils extracted from plants, as antifungal agent. A special emphasis has been addressed to the effect exerted on the most pathogenic fungi for crops, also highlighting the mechanisms of action that researchers attribute to the composite, together with inhibition data.

Key Findings and Conclusion

Effective natural treatments, using chitosan-essential oils films or nano-emulsions, improve the preservation of fruit in terms of fungal decay. The effect is particularly dependent on the ability to release the antimicrobial compounds from the polymer matrix, the type of essential oils, the fungal species, and the incubation temperature. Several efforts are still required to understand in detail the mechanism of degradation of perishable food, how the chitosan-essential oils composites control or inhibit food decay, the effects on other pathogenic and non-pathogenic moulds as well as on the production of mycotoxins.

中文翻译：

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富含精油的壳聚糖包衣：对参与果实腐烂的真菌的影响及其作用机理

背景

P esticides对消费者的健康和环境造成负面影响，并因此，利用自然发生的抗菌药物已经变得越来越流行，以防止食品腐败变质。一种替代方法是使用壳聚糖，因为它具有抗微生物，抗氧化活性，并具有形成具有良好机械性能的薄膜的能力。壳聚糖已用于制备膜和涂层以保存各种食品，防腐剂的添加已被证明是改善其原位抗菌活性的良好策略。

范围和方法

这篇综述收集了与研究相关的信息，这些研究以壳聚糖为基质，用于薄膜，涂料和纳米凝胶，并以从植物中提取的精油作为抗真菌剂。特别强调了对农作物最具致病性的真菌所产生的作用，还强调了研究人员归因于这种复合物的作用机理以及抑制数据。

主要发现和结论

使用壳聚糖必要的油膜或纳米乳剂进行有效的自然处理，可以改善真菌腐烂方面对水果的保存。该效果特别取决于从聚合物基质释放抗菌化合物的能力，精油的类型，真菌种类和孵育温度。仍需要做出一些努力来详细了解易腐烂食品的降解机理，壳聚糖必需油复合物如何控制或抑制食品腐烂，对其他病原性和非病原性霉菌以及霉菌毒素产生的影响。