Changes in antioxidant and biochemical activities in castor oil-coated Capsicum annuum L. during postharvest storage

Jitendriya Panigrahi,Mansi Patel,Niyati Patel,Saikat Gantait,Bhumi Gheewala

doi:10.1007/s13205-018-1284-1

Jitendriya Panigrahi, Mansi Patel + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s13205-018-1284-1

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Journal: 3 Biotech	Publication Date: Jun 1, 2018
Citations: 12	License type: open-access

Affiliation: Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya

Abstract

This study, for the first time, evaluates the efficiency of castor oil when used as an external coating on Capsicum annuum L., to increase postharvest storage-life at 4 ± 1 °C. The castor oil-coated fruits were successfully stored for 36 days, while the non-coated fruits could only sustain for 18 days. Throughout the storage period (at 9-day intervals), different antioxidants and biochemical assays (allied with storage) such as titratable acidity, ascorbic acid content, ferrous ion chelating activity, reducing power, DPPH scavenging activity, hydroxyl radical scavenging activity, total phenolic content, total sugar estimation, and enzymatic study of polyphenol oxidase and pectate lyase, were assessed. During storage, the castor oil-coated fruits showed a substantial decrease in titratable acidity, ascorbic acid content, total phenolic content, including antioxidant activities such as reducing power and DPPH activity; however, an increase in ferrous ion chelating activity, total soluble sugar content, polyphenol oxidase activity and initial pectate lyase activity was observed, in contrast to that of the non-coated fruits. The application of castor oil proved to be effective in delaying the ripening process of fruits during storage.

Highlights

Capsicum annuum L., an important member of Solanaceae family, is mainly grown as a cash crop owing to its distinctly pungent non-climacteric fruits, enriched with vitamins and minerals
For the first time, we evaluated the influence of castor oil as an external coating on different storage-associated biochemical and antioxidant activities with the aim to extend the postharvest storage-life of C. annuum L
This study shows the potential of castor oil coating in reducing the postharvest losses of storage-life of C. annuum

Summary

Introduction

Capsicum annuum L. (green chilli), an important member of Solanaceae family, is mainly grown as a cash crop owing to its distinctly pungent non-climacteric fruits, enriched with vitamins and minerals. (green chilli), an important member of Solanaceae family, is mainly grown as a cash crop owing to its distinctly pungent non-climacteric fruits, enriched with vitamins and minerals. Inspite of having such high nutritional values it has limited storage-life (Panigrahi et al 2017), which is a major problem for fruits and vegetable growers. The fruits undergo gradual deterioration due to desiccation, oxidative reactions, microbial growth, and other biochemical changes Such rapid deterioration in the form of softening, wrinkling, wilting and decaying of the harvested produce during storage and transportation, fail to provide the anticipated profit, consumer-acceptance or to even meet the actual cultivation cost. External coating(s), acting as partial barrier to water vapour, gases and restricting rapid metabolism, might be helpful to preserve the texture, quality and external appearance of harversted fruits, and in due course may improve their storage-life, significantly influencing the functions of storage-associated biochemicals and antioxidants (Baldwin 1994; Li et al 2017; Panigrahi et al 2017)

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