Optimization of tea tree oil fumigation for keeping quality of harvested strawberry fruit

In order to determine the optimum condition of tee tree oil fumigation for control disease of postharvest strawberry fruit inoculated with Botrytis cinerea, effects of three independent variables, fumigation time, fumigation concentration and fumigation temperature were investigated by means of response surface methodology (RSM) combined with Box-Behnken experimental design based on the single factor experiments. Results showed that the optimal fumigation conditions were as follows: the fumigation time was 3.1 h, fumigation concentration was 0.66 mL/L and fumigation temperature 33.3℃. Verification test showed that the decay index of inoculated strawberry fruit is 7.5%, and the relative error of the measured values with the predicted value is 4.1%. Under these conditions, natural strawberries were fumigated and stored to observe the disease and quality change. The results show that tea tree oil treatment can significantly reduce the natural decay development, meanwhile reduce weight loss and maintain higher hardness, soluble solid, titratable acid and anthocyanin content. This research can provide a reference for commercial application of tea tree oil on strawberry preservation.