Physiological and Quality Changes of Postharvest Strawberries at Different Storage Temperature and Their Relationships to Fruit Discoloration
Shuzhen Yang1, Ruixu Chen1, Shi Johnb2, Junli Ye3, Gang Fan1, Houcheng Zhou4, Litao Peng1, Siyi Pana1
Affiliation
- 1Key Laboratory of Environment Correlative Dietology, Ministry of Education, College of food science and technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China
- 2Guelph Food Research Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, N1G 5C9, Canada
- 3Key Laboratory of Horticultural Plant Biology, Ministry of Education, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China
- 4Zhengzhou Fruit Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Zhengzhou, 450009, China
Corresponding Author
Dr. Litao Peng, Key Laboratory of Environment Correlative Dietology, Ministry of Education, College of food science and technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China, Tel: +86(27)8728211; Fax: +86(27)87288373; E-mail: penglt12@mail.hzau.edu.cn
Citation
Peng, L., et al. Physiological and Quality Changes of Postharvest Strawberries at Different Storage Temperature and Their Relationships to Fruit Discoloration. (2017) J Food Nutr Sci 4(2): 81- 88.
Copy rights
© 2017 Peng, L. This is an Open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Keywords
Abstract
The changes in fruit color development, fruit quality, reactive oxygen species (ROS) metabolism, and phenolic metabolism of strawberries during storage at 15°C, 25°C and 35°C were evaluated to explore the key internal factors resulting in the fruit discoloration. The high storage temperatures aggravated fruit discoloration as indicated by the decrease of L*, a* and b* values, and accelerated weight loss of postharvest strawberry fruit. The fruit under higher temperature treatments induced more productions of superoxide anion (O2•- ) and hydrogen peroxide content (H2O2), more accumulation of Malondialdehyde (MDA) and lower antioxidant enzyme activities including Superoxide Dismutase (SOD) and Catalase (CAT). For phenolic metabolism, the high storage temperature increased the levels of anthocyanins, total flavonoids and phenolics, and enhanced the activities of relative enzymes including Polyphenol Oxidase (PPO) and Peroxidase (POD) in postharvest strawberry fruit. Further data correlation analysis indicates that anthocyanins accumulation was the most important factor leading to fruit discoloration of post harvest strawberries, followed by ROS and weight loss. Based on present study, the results suggest that fruit color of post harvest strawberry could be maintained through the ways including delay of the anthocyanins accumulation, maintenance of antioxidant activity and reduction of the water loss during storage.