**3. Results**

### *3.1. Weight Loss (%), Decay (%), Rot and Marketable (%)*

With the advance of the cold-storage period, fruit weight loss and fruit decay percentages were significantly increased, whereas marketable fruit (%) significantly decreased (Figure 1). Weight loss increased during storage and recorded the highest values in control fruit after 21 days. Weight loss (%) was significantly lowered in samples that were coated with GA (10%), GA (10%) + moringa (10%), GA (10%) + cactus (10%), and GA (10%) + henna (3%). Moreover, the lowest values of weight loss were coupled with the treatment GA (10%) + moringa extract (10%), during cold-storage and both experimental seasons. Additionally, concerning decay percentage, all edible-coating treatments recorded significant reductions compared with the uncoated samples. Among all treatments, fruits that were coated with GA (10%) + moringa (10%) obtained the lowest values of decay percentage compared with all treatments. Furthermore, rot (%) increased as storage days progressed, and the control treatment scored the highest values during both seasons. Alternatively, fruit samples coated with GA (10%) + (10%) moringa, and GA (10%) + henna (10%) obtained the lowest averages in rot percentages during the 2019 and 2020 experimental seasons. On the contrary, the marketability fruit percentage significantly decreased in all treatments, as well as with increasing storage days. In this respect, the natural edible coatings kept the marketability of guava higher than uncoated fruits, and fruits samples coated with GA (10%) and GA (10%) + moringa (10%) also kept the fruit at a higher percent, although there were the significant differences among treatments.

**Figure 1.** Effect of edible coatings of moringa extract, cactus pear, and henna, and GA, on weight loss, decay, rot, and marketable percentages of guava fruits during cold storage for 21 days throughout two seasons (2019–2020). The superscript letters, present the significantly between effect of treatments using Duncan's multiple range tests.

### *3.2. Firmness (N), TSS (%), Acidity (%), and TSS/Acid (%)*

Data in Figure 2 suggest there were significant differences among the treatments. Respecting firmness, the fruit samples handled with GA (10%) and GA (10%) + moringa (10%) appeared to have higher values of firmness during storage periods, as well as during both experimental seasons, compared with the other coated and uncoated treatments which recorded the lowest firmness values. Moreover, there were notable decreases in firmness when storage days were increased.

**Figure 2.** Effect of edible coatings moringa extract, cactus pear, henna and GA, on firmness (N), TSS (%), acidity (%), and TSS/acid ratio of guava during cold storage for 21 days throughout two seasons (2019–2020). The superscript letters, present the significantly between effect of treatments using Duncan's multiple range tests.

As for both TSS and TSS/acid ratio, the studied treatments showed the differences among them in this respect, but there was no specific direction in these traits during both seasons. Concerning acidity, the data indicated that there were significant differences among treatments during storability days as well as during both seasons. From these data, the highest values of acidity were obtained with GA (10%) and GA (10%) + moringa (10%) in the 2019 and 2020 seasons.
