Antifungal electrospinning nanofiber film incorporated with Zanthoxylum bungeanum essential oil for strawberry and sweet cherry preservation

Given that the high incidences of fruit mildew especially for strawberry and cherry during storage, the green, edible, and antifungal package materials was greatly required to improve the shelf-life. Herein, an active package film encapsulating Zanthoxylum bungeanum essential oil (ZBEO, 10%) into polyvinyl alcohol/β-Cyclodextrin (PVA/β-CD, 6:1) nanofibers was fabricated via the electrospinning technology, based on the specific process optimization. ZBEO/Film composing of nanofibers (∼185 nm of average diameter) exhibited the adequate mechanical properties, in which tensile strength (TS), Young's modulus (YM), and elongation at break (EAB) were 10.69 ± 1.97 MPa, 58.27 ± 5.58%, and 268.64 ± 64.28 MPa, respectively, the higher water vapor permeability (34.9464 g mm/kPa∙m2∙d), the high-water contact angle value at 104.7°. The significant antifungal activities of ZBEO/Films against Penicillium, Aspergillus flavus or Botrytis cinerea have been presented by vapor contact in vitro. Finally, after spreading on ZBEO/Films, both strawberries and cherries could keep fresh during 10 days of storage, compared to the severe mildew in other counterparts. Most importantly, these fruits treated with ZBEO/Films had the highest sensory scores. All these finding suggested that the developed electrospinning nanofiber ZBEO/Film would be a promising fruit packaging material with the anti-fungal and fresh-keeping advantages.