Acta Hortic. 1278. ISHS 2020. DOI 10.17660/ActaHortic.2020.1278.2 Proc. IV International Conference on Postharvest and Quality Management of Horticultural Products of Interest for Tropical Regions Eds.: C.K. Beneragama et al. 7 Effect of lemon basil (Ocimum basilicum) seed mucilage and Chinese quince (Pseudocydonia sinensis) seed mucilage coating to cherry tomato (Solanum lycopersicum ‘Sida’) fruits P. Inthamat 1 , Y. Hamauzu 2,a and W. Tongdeesoontorn 1 1 School of Agro-Industry, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai, Thailand; 2 Faculty of Agriculture, Shinshu University, Nagano, Japan. Abstract In this study, effects of edible coating on physical quality changes (weight loss, firmness and color change) of cherry tomatoes were investigated. Using edible coating from lemon basil seed mucilage (LBSM) at 0.9% (dry weight/volume) concentration and Chinese quince seed mucilage (CQSM) at 3% concentration was compared with an uncoated control. The coated and uncoated cherry tomatoes were stored at 15±1°C, 95% RH for 20 days and the quality change was checked every 5 days. The result showed that the coated cherry tomatoes with 0.9% LBSM and 3% CQSM could delay the weight loss percentage and texture change compared to the uncoated during storage. The weight loss percentage of the coated cherry tomatoes was significantly (P<0.05) lower than the uncoated in each day of storage. The coated cherry tomatoes displayed significantly high firmness during storage when compared with uncoated (P<0.05). However, edible coating from both LBSM and CQSM had no effect to pulp color change of cherry tomatoes. Thus, using edible coating from 0.9% LBSM and 3% CQSM can help to delay physical quality changes and also extend shelf life of cherry tomatoes. Keywords: edible coating, seed mucilage, cherry tomatoes, weight loss, firmness, shelf life INTRODUCTION Cherry tomato (Solanum lycopersicum ‘Sida’) is a small fruit of about 15-20 g, with a thin skin having a red color, thick pulp and sweet taste when it is ripened. Consumers prefer to eat it fresh more than cooked, since fresh fruits contain high water (up to 94.5%) and juiciness. Because of the high water content, the fruits easily show wilting skin symptoms during storage due to rapid water loss. Using coating is a type of postharvest technology that helps extending the shelf life of fruits and vegetables by decreasing respiration and transpiration rate as well as reducing microbial proliferation. Therefore, some edible film (coating) technologies have been studied for extending shelf life with high quality of fruits and vegetables (Del-Valle et al., 2005; Dhall, 2013). In recent studies on edible coating technology, it is an important issue to find edible materials that have safe and convenient properties. Some plant seeds can produce mucilage and it may be usable for coating materials. Lemon basil (Ocimum basilicum) seeds are available as raw material and the mucilage is used as viscosity-enhancing substance in the food industry. It has been shown that lemon basil seed mucilage (LBSM) can be used as a coating material in postharvest technology to extend commercial shelf-life of fresh-cut apricots (Hashemi et al., 2017). Chinese quince (Pseudocydonia sinensis) is found in Asia e.g., China, Japan and Korea. Chinese quince fruits cannot be eaten raw because of the hard texture, so the pulp of fruit are processed in food production as jam, jelly, candy, and juice (Hamauzu et al., 2010). However, the seeds of Chinese quince are waste material from the processing in the food industry. Moreover, Chinese quince seeds also have a characteristic to produce sticky mucilage when a E-mail: hamauzu@shinshu-u.ac.jp