SHAISTA JABEEN2025-12-032025-12-032019https://escholar.umt.edu.pk/handle/123456789/15031Herbal medicines are less harmful and cheap as compare to synthetic drugs. Solanum nigrum was selected because it is one of the significant medicinal herb which is used to cure various ailments and is commonly found everywhere in open and wild field. Various coatings were prepared by Methanolic extract added with Candelilla wax, Aqueous extract blended with Candelilla wax and pure Candelilla wax was used as positive control. The results of all formulations were compared with the negative control (fruits and vegetables without coating). Oranges, Apples, Tomatoes and Lemons were the samples which were coated. This analysis was carried out for 21 days (every 24 hours) to investigate different parameters like weight, pH and skin appearance of fruits and vegetables under observation. In Oranges, weight loss with methanolic extract coatings ranged from 0.94% to 7.14%; with aqueous extract coatings, it ranged from 0.2% to 17.75% while Positive control showed the weight loss from 0.46% to 18.19%. Weight loss in methanol extract coating apples ranged between 0.15% to 4.97%, apples coated with aqueous extract coatings ranged 0.59% to 2.63% and positive control ranged 0.25% to 3.65%. In case of methanolic blend and aqueous blend lemons, maximum weight loss ranged till 20.97% and 12.86% respectively. While positive control in lemons showed the range 3.58% to 42.63%. In weight measurement of Tomatoes, aqueous blend, methanolic blend and pure Candelilla wax (positive control) showed highest weight loss range of 14.79%, 8.21% and 6.39% respectively. Analysis of pH depicted that the best effect was of methanolic extract coatings in all the samples under observation. Methanolic extract blend was proved to be best in case of skin appearance of the vegetables and fruits. Hence, edible coatings can be used to prevent microbial attacks and it showed the significant results to prolong the shelf life of fruits and vegetables.enThesis