The College of Education, Samarra University discussed a master dissertation on the effectiveness of some natural and plant products as edible coatings in inhibiting fungal infection and increasing the shelf life of local apple fruits by the postgraduate student, Ms. Qabas Mahmoud Abbas.

The dissertation aimed at evaluating the efficiency of some natural products (black seed, pectin, and beeswax) in increasing the shelf life of storing local apple fruits and the efficiency of coating apple fruits with pectin, black seed oil, and wax in inhibiting fungal growth and their effect on some qualitative characteristics of apple fruits.

The dissertation demonstrated that coating with plant-based materials improved storage conditions, reduced weight loss, and increased the shelf life of local apple fruits under natural storage conditions, as well as using of plant-based materials from black seed reduced the fungal infection of stored apple fruits and helped improve the qualitative properties of the fruits, besides the black seed oil coating treatment was superior in reducing fungal infections and prolonging the shelf life of apple fruits until the end of the storage period.