Effective suppression of potato tuber sprouting using polysaccharide-based emulsified films for prolonged release of citral

Effective suppression of potato tuber sprouting was achieved using emulsified carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC)-based delivery systems for the natural antisprouting agent citral. The formation of coarse emulsions and nanoemulsions of citral was validated by DLS and cryo-TEM. The coarse-emulsified and nanoemulsified citral-CMC films were characterized using FTIR, TGA, and GC-MS, and compared with CMC films that contained direct citral addition. The emulsified films showed significant advantages compared to the direct addition of citral in terms of the active agent's content, chemical stability, prolonged release and effective inhibition of potato sprouting. Tubers packaged with directly added citral films showed no inhibition of sprouting after 14 days of storage at 20 °C, whereas 100% of sprouting inhibition was observed in tubers packaged with coarse-emulsified and nanoemulsified citral-CMC films. After 28 days of storage, coarse-emulsified and nanoemulsified citral-CMC films inhibited 60% and 80% of sprouting, respectively. Sprouting inhibition resulted in less tuber weight loss and preserve the tubers' organoleptic properties. To our knowledge, this is the first proposed solid-state formulation for the delivery of natural potato sprouting inhibitors. Furthermore, our delivery system can be adjusted for a wide range of other antisprouting agents. The suggested approach of using emulsified CMC films in retail bags can serve as active packaging to maintain potato quality and storability during marketing and household storage.