INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 5, ISSUE 02, FEBRUARY 2016 ISSN 2277-8616 73 IJSTR©2016 www.ijstr.org The Effect Of Coating With Chitosan Of Some Degrees Of Concentration On Fruit Quality Lince Romauli Panataria, Dharma Bakti, Elisa Julianti Abstract: Strawberries are kind of fruit that easily go bad after they are harvested from the orchards. Thus it is needed good post-harvest handlings to retain the fresh quality of the fruits. One of the handlings is coating the fruits with chitosan. It is expected that this coating the fruits with chitosan can prolong the storage of the fruits after they are harvested. This occurs because chitosan can slow down the ripening process of the fruits wheile they are stored. Research has been done to derive what the best concentration of chitosan used in storing some varieties of strawberries is. This research was conducted in Medan, North Sumatera. The design was Random, Complete Factorial Plan consisting of two factors namely, three varieties of strawberries and chitosan of (0-150 ml/L) concentration at environmental temperature of 25°C. The statistics showed that the application of the highest water content and CO2 was on the application of V1K0 (local variety, no chitosan); the lowest was on the application V2K2 (Chandler variety, 150 ml/L liquid chitosan). The highest O2 was on the application V2K0 (Chandler variety,nochitosan); and the lowest oxygen was on the application V1K3 (Loal variety, 150 ml/L liquid chitosan). The application of the highest fiber content was on V2K3 (Chandler variety, 150 ml/ L liquid chitosan); the lowest was on the V1K0 (Local variety, no chitosan). The highest vitamin C content was found in the application of coating with 150 ml/L liquid chitosan; and the lowest was on the application with no chitosan applied. Index Terms: Chitosan, storage, strawberry ———————————————————— 1 INTRODUCTION Strawberries are one kind of fruits which is favored by society and the fruit has high economical value because it tastes good and contains vitamins which ae needed for human health. As it has high economical value, many farmers in Indonsia very eagerly grow it. Meanwhile the fact is that the fruit does not stay good for long after it is harvested, but goes bad so easily. This condition occurs because the fruit still experiences metabolism even after it is harvested. The food supplies in the fruit will diminish and are not replaced as the fruit is already separated from its tres. That is why the nutrients and the fresh quality of the fruit are reduced. For this reason, it needed a way to retain the good quality of the fruit. One of the handlings is by coating the fruit which has been harvsted with chitosan to extend the storage time. Coating the fruit on the surface of it is to prevet the gases from going out and into the fruit; avoid transpirational process that can cause the loss of water content in the fruit. The frequent coating material is chitosan as this element can be coated over the thin surface of the fruit and protect it from harmful microorganisms (Hardjito, 2006). Chitosan is also edible and safe to consume as it is made from natural polysaccaride amino (Fernandez, 2012). The chitosan can maintain the freshness of the fruit such as strawberries (Karina et al, 2012), lanzones (Widodo and Zulferiyenni, 2008), ―chrystal‖ guavas (Widodo et al., 2013). 2 MATERIALS AND METHODS This research was conducted in Laboratory of Analisis Kimia Pangan, North Sumatera University. It was conducted on May 2011 and the experimental design used was Randomize Block Design (RBD) with two (2) factors; factor 1 is varieties of fruit (V) namely, V 1 : Local variety, V 2 : Chandler varity, V 3 : California variety, and factor 2 is chitosan dosage/ concentration (K) namely, K 0 : without chitosan, K 1 : 50 cc/L liquid chitosan, K 2 : 100 cc/L liquid chitosan, K 3 : 150 cc/L liquid chitosan. Parameters to be observed were water content (%), respirational speed (ml/kg/hour) and vitamin C content (mg/100gram of material). The coating was done after the fruit was picked off its trees, with different concentrations of chitosan as shown in following Picture 1: Figures 1. Immersion chitosan on different concentration. The fruits coated for 20 seconds then dried for 5 minutes and then placed in container styrofoam tray and packed according to the applications and finally stored at 25%C temperature. chitosan 50cc/L water chitosan 100cc/L water chitosan 150cc/ L water Without Chitosan immersion FRUIT Immersion with 20 sec Filter and dry with winds blow __________________________  Lince Romauli Panataria: Dept. of Agrotechnology, Faculty of Agriculture, Methodist University of SIndonesia, Medan, 20132, Indonesia, Email: meddy.siregar@yahoo.com  Darma Bakti: Dept. of Agroecotechnology, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Sumatera Utara, Medan, 20155, Indonesia  Elisa Julianti: Dept. of Food Science and Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Sumatera Utara, Medan, 20155, Indonesia