Comparison of the quality of dried persimmon (Diospyros kaki THUNB.) treated with medicinal plant extracts and food additives

We evaluated the direct application of different extracts from plant‐derived compounds at different ratios. The best effect was observed with the combination of 18.18% clove, 9.90% cinnamon, 9.09% licorice, 4.55% firmament, 4.55% grapefruit seed extract, and 54.54% apple cider vinegar. The combination of these compounds improved the moisture content of the fruit and showed antifungal, antibrowning, and antifungal/antibrowning effects as compared with the control following 6‐week treatment. The treatment resulted in an increase in the overall sugar concentration of dried persimmons. Antibrowning/antifungal test showed high sugar content of 30–39 °brix. The hardness of the treatment groups was similar to that of the control and decreased by 0.5 to 0.8 after 6 weeks. The evaluation of color change revealed a decreasing tendency in the value of △E during the drying period. Thus, natural extracts effectively suppressed the quality degradation during drying of persimmon and may be used to replace sulfur fumigation.