About the Authors

Huadong Chen

Affiliation Center for Excellence in Post-Harvest Technologies, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, North Carolina Research Campus, Kannapolis, North Carolina, United States of America

Saeed Hayek

Affiliations Center for Excellence in Post-Harvest Technologies, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, North Carolina Research Campus, Kannapolis, North Carolina, United States of America, Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, North Carolina A & T State University, Greensboro, North Carolina, United States of America

Javier Rivera Guzman

Affiliation Department of Medicine, Pharmacology and Immunology/Microbiology and the Center for Gastrointestinal Biology and Disease, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America

Nicholas D. Gillitt

Affiliation Dole Nutrition Research Laboratory, North Carolina Research Campus, Kannapolis, North Carolina, United States of America

Salam A. Ibrahim

Affiliation Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, North Carolina A & T State University, Greensboro, North Carolina, United States of America

Christian Jobin

ssang@nact.edu (SS); job@med.un.ed (CJ)

Affiliation Department of Medicine, Pharmacology and Immunology/Microbiology and the Center for Gastrointestinal Biology and Disease, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America

Shengmin Sang

ssang@nact.edu (SS); job@med.un.ed (CJ)

Affiliation Center for Excellence in Post-Harvest Technologies, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, North Carolina Research Campus, Kannapolis, North Carolina, United States of America

Competing Interests

NDG is employed by Dole Nutrition Research Laboratory. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter the authors’ adherence to all the PLOS One policies on sharing data and materials, as detailed online in the guide for authors.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: SS CJ SAI. Performed the experiments: HC SH JRG. Analyzed the data: HC SS. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: SS NDG. Wrote the paper: SS HC CJ.