*Article* **Edible Coatings from** *Opuntia ficus-indica* **Cladodes Alongside Chitosan on Quality and Antioxidants in Cherries during Storage**

**Miltiadis V. Christopoulos 1,\*, Dimitrios Gkatzos 1, Mina Kafkaletou 2, Jinhe Bai 3, Dimitrios Fanourakis 4, Giorgos Tsaniklidis <sup>5</sup> and Eleni Tsantili 2,\***


**Abstract:** The aim of this work was to investigate the effect of edible coatings (ECs) prepared from extracts of *Opuntia ficus-indica* (OFI) cladodes in comparison with a commercial chitosan formulation on the quality of 'Regina' cherries packaged in macro-perforated bags and stored for up to 28 d (1 ◦C, 90% RH). The coating concentrations were 25% and 50% aqueous OFI extract (approximately 0.59 and 1.18% dry matter, respectively), 1% OFI alcohol insoluble polysaccharide and 1% chitosan. The variables evaluated included weight loss (WL), respiration rates (RR), peel color, firmness, microbial decay, total antioxidants (phenolics, flavonoids, anthocyanins, antioxidant capacity), individual phenolic compounds (anthocyanins, hydroxycinnamic acids, flavan-3-*O*-ols), and pedicel removal force. The main results show that all coatings reduced WL and RR similarly, enhanced firmness throughout storage and antioxidants after 28 d of storage compared to the controls. Among treatments, chitosan resulted in much higher peel glossiness and firmness in comparison to OFI extracts. On day 28, all ECs resulted in higher antioxidants than controls, OFI extracts resulted in higher cyaniding-3- *O*-rutinoside than chitosan, while 50% OFI treatment resulted in the highest catechin concentration. Therefore, OFI extracts are promising ECs for cherry storage since they exhibited no negative effect, improved quality and extended storage life by one week compared to the controls.

**Keywords:** *Prunus avium*; edible coatings; *Opuntia ficus-indica* extracts; chitosan; storage; quality; anthocyanins; phenolic compounds; total antioxidant capacity
