Physical-Chemical Properties of Strawberry Pseudofruits Submitted to Applications of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles

Abstract

Strawberry cultivation is appreciated in many countries because of the fruit's well-defined, attractive and nutritional sensorial characteristics. As such, it is of great commercial value. The flavor and nutritional properties of the fruit are characteristics that have been developed and gaining importance, both in breeding programs and in productive systems. In this sense, this work proposes the application of nanotechnology for the improvement of the physicochemical characteristics of strawberry crops, with the main objective of analyzing the influence on nutritional performance of different fruit treatment doses with zinc oxide nanoparticles. The physicochemical analyses of the strawberry pseudofruitswere carried out from November to June 2016. The experimental design was in randomized complete blocks, in a factorial scheme, with 7 replicates. The collected data were submitted to analysis of variance with the F-test and the differences between means were compared by the Tukey test (P≤0.05).The treatment process of the strawberry crop with zinc oxide nanoparticles was shown to be efficient for anthocyanin nutrients and soluble solids. The method for analyzing vitamin C, which consisted in freezing the raw material, was ineffective, probably because of the reduction of ascorbic acid levels by the freezing and crystallization of the sample. Climatic factors significantly influence the nutritional composition of anthocyanins and soluble solids. The application of nanoparticles at 100% of the recommended dose proved to be more effective than zinc oxide in its natural form in increasing the soluble solids values.