Refining of Eucommia ulmoides Oliver derived wood vinegar for excellent preservation of the typical berries
Rui Xue, Wen Zhang, Zhouping Wang, Ming-Qiang Zhu
Abstract
Wood vinegar was pyrolyzed from Eucommia ulmoides Oliver branches and suffered from the different refinery methods, such as the ultra-low freezing and thawing (WVFT), the charcoal adsorbed (WVCA), the activated carbon adsorbed (WVACA), the atmospheric distillation (WVAD80, WVAD90, WVAD100), and the vacuum distillation (WVVD70). Subsequently, two typical berries (cherry tomatoes and strawberries) were treated with the seven refined wood vinegar (5.0 g/L) to evaluate theirs storage performance. The effectiveness of the various refined wood vinegars of the berries were systematically investigated by the weight loss, decay incidence, firmness, pH, color, total soluble solids and vitamin C content. The results demonstrated that the application of WVFT in refined wood vinegar resulted in the significant pH reduction (3.65–4.21), firmness loss (0.74–3.49 N), effectively delayed the weight loss (5.49%–42.43%) and decay incidence (11.11%–38.89%) of the two berries. Besides, the refined wood vinegar remarkably reduced the loss of vitamin C content (18.18–77.58 100 g/mg) and total soluble solids (5.6–10.07 °Brix) of the berries. These results provided the basis for further application of the refined wood vinegar to develop in food preservatives.