Exposure to Volatile Essential Oils of Myrtle (Myrtus communis L.) Leaves for Improving the Postharvest Storability of Fresh Loquat Fruits

Table 1

Detailed explanations of the treatments.

Treatments	Explanation
Water vapor (2 min)	Firstly, 20 L of water was boiled in a stainless steel cap. Then, a checkered wire (with 1 cm^2 sieve) was put over the cap. Hereafter, loquat fruits were lined up in a single row on the wire and waited for 2 min. The fruits were than air dried for 1 h and transferred to small PET trays (16.5 8.5 3.5 cm) with a volume of 490.8 mL. Ten fruits were placed in each tray, and the upper part was covered with a linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) stretch film with 10 micron thickness
Myrtle leaves (3% w/w)	Ten loquat fruits (equalling to 1 replication) were placed in small PET trays (described above) with myrtle leaves (3% w/w), and the upper part was covered with an LLDPE stretch film. The fruits were kept together with the myrtle leaves until the end of the planned storage durations
Myrtle leaf vapor (2 min)	Similar to the water vapor treatment, 20 L of water was boiled in a stainless steel cap. Then, 200 g of fresh myrtle leaves were added into boiling water and boiled for 5 minutes. Then, loquat fruits were lined up in a single row on the wire and waited for 2 min. Hereafter, the same procedure was followed for drying and packing of the fruits.
Myrtle leaf vapor (10 min)	This treatment is the same as that described above, “myrtle leaf vapor (2 min)” treatment, whereas the exposing duration of the loquat fruits to the myrtle leaf vapor is 10 min, instead of 2 min
Untreated control	Fruits of this treatment (untreated control) were dried for additional 30 min to make it equal with the abovedescribed treatments. No any other applications have been performed to these fruits