Work

Pore architecture governs tannic acid release from porous Poria cocos polysaccharide beads for headspace antioxidant preservation of fruit

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Postharvest fungal decay and water loss waste substantial fruit, while sulfur dioxide preservatives leave residues and act unevenly across fruits. Herein, tannic acid (TA) was loaded into Poria cocos polysaccharide (PCP) hydrogel beads via hydrogen-bond assembly; salt porogen leaching with gradient annealing created interconnected, PCP-tuned pore channels. Pore sizes of 24.9–36.4 µm shifted release from Fickian to anomalous transport, and medium-porosity PTB-2 was selected for balanced release, high moisture sorption, and bead quality. PTB-2 achieved 97.4% cumulative TA release (n = 0.55, R² = 0.998), and released phenolics quantitatively accounted for 66.9% headspace DPPH scavenging at 48 h (R² = 0.982). Over 14 days, PTB-2 reduced grape decay to 19.2% (vs 76.7% control; UVASYS 14.2%) and cherry tomato decay to 21.3% (vs 58.6% control; UVASYS 53.1%), retaining anthocyanin, lycopene, and vitamin C. This pore-tuned polyphenol platform offers a natural, broad-spectrum, biosafe route to residue-minimized active fruit packaging.

Source: Food Chemistry X

DOI: 10.1016/j.fochx.2026.104670