The aim of this study was to improve tomato storability by testing the effect of a novel edible coating with basil mucilage, cumin essential oils and mixture of basil mucilage and cumin essential oil on tomato postharvest quality. A set of untreated control and treated fruits were stored at 20 ◦C and 80–90% RH for 9 days. The tomatoes were randomly sampled and their physico-chemical parameters were evaluated at the end of the period specified. As the storage progressed a general declining trend in the TSS was observed for all treatments except for tomatoes treated with essential oils. Titratable acidity significantly decreased as a function of storage time for all studied treatments. Basil gum coating treatments was the most effective of all coating showing a lowest weight loss after 9 days from storage. In our study, coating treatments has not made statistically great impact to maintain firmness. During the post treatment storage the tomatoes treated with basil gum displayed higher significant impact on ‘L*’ ‘a*’ and ‘b*’ (P<0.05) color rating values in comparison with other treated and untreated. In tomato samples treated with BGC+Cumin Essential oil, the ‘a*/b*’ ratio showed a decreasing trend with the progress in storage time and for other treatments the trends were in progressing manner. Sensory evaluation proved the efficacy of essential oils and combined BGC + Cumin Essential oil coating by maintaining the overall quality of tomato fruit during the storage period. The results suggest that by using basil gum as an edible coating, the weight loss can be delayed and the storage life of tomatoes stored at 20 ◦C can be extended.

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