**Chuying Chen 1, Nan Cai 1, Jinyin Chen 1,2,\*, Xuan Peng <sup>2</sup> and Chunpeng Wan 1,\***


Received: 25 October 2018; Accepted: 4 December 2018; Published: 4 December 2018

**Abstract:** A novel coating based on 1.5% chitosan (CH), enriched with or without hairy fig (*Ficus hirta* Vahl.) fruit extract (HFE), was applied to "Newhall" navel orange for improving the preservation effect. Changes in physicochemical indexes were analyzed over 120 days of cold storage. Uncoated fruit were used as the control. The CH-HFE coating, based on 1.5% CH enriched with HFE, exhibited the best preservation effect and showed the lowest decay rate (5.2%) and weight loss (5.16%). The CH-HFE coating could postpone the ripening and senescence of navel oranges, and maintain higher fruit quality by inhibiting respiration, decreasing the accumulation of malondialdehyde (MDA), and enhancing the activities of protective enzyme, including superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), chitinase (CHI), and β-1,3-glucanase (GLU), which suggests that CH-HFE coating has the potential to improve the postharvest quality of "Newhall" navel orange and prolong the storage life.

**Keywords:** chitosan; edible coating; hairy fig fruits; navel oranges; physicochemical responses
