Discussion
Unwaxed fruits stored at room temperature were the highest % weight loss and wax coated fruits with over
recommend concentration stored at 5 oC were the lowest % weight loss among all treatments during storage. Wax
coated fruits had lower % weight loss than unwaxed fruits during storage. Our result confirm that the effectiveness
of teva wax coating as moisture barrier by showing teva wax coated mandarins had lower % weight loss than
uncoated (no wax) mandarins in storage. Mandarin fruits stored at 5 oC had lower % weight loss than that of room
temperature stored fruits without any appearance of chilling symptoms. Previous finding by Ben-Yehoshua (1969)
supported our result that lowering the temperature of storage from 20 oC to 12 oC extend storage life by reducing
transpiration and delay the drying of the peel in orange. Furthermore, 5 oC is suitable temperature for storing of
mandarin orange as recommended by Murata, (1997). By contrast, at lower temperatures (2 oC) the orange
showed symptom of chilling injury, and objectionable pitting developed on the peel (Ben-Yehoshua, 1969).
Wax coated fruits are longer shelf life than control in both storage conditions. Moreover, fruits stored at 5
oC had shelf life longer than that stored at room temperature. Similar finding have reported that the use of low
temperature storage in combination with edible coatings extended marketability on ‘Angeleno’ pulms by reducing
in fruit weight (Navarro et al., 2005).