Abstract
The purpose of this study was to alleviate chilling injury (CI) of lemon basil during storage by using preharvest salicylic acid (SA) treatment. The basil was sprayed with SA at the concentration of 0, 1, 5 or 10 mM before harvesting 24 h and was then stored at 7 °C for 4 days. Weight loss, CI score, malondialdehyde (MDA) content, electrolyte leakage (EL), superficial colour, pigments and bioactive compounds were determined. SA treatments alleviated CI and reduced the increase in EL and MDA content which the best result alleviating CI was 5 mM SA. The greenness and total chlorophyll content were maintained by SA application. After 24 h of treatment, antioxidants, total phenols and flavonoids were enhanced. During storage, SA treatment reduced the loss of bioactive compounds in the lemon basil. In conclusion, preharvest SA treatment at 5 mM alleviated CI and maintained quality of lemon basil during cold storage.
Highlights
Basils (Ocimum sp.), one of most popular culinary herb, are widely used as a flavoring agent in Asian cuisine, especially Thai food
The main factor affecting the loss of fresh weight of the lemon basil during storage could be relative humidity as describe by Supapvanich et al (2012)
The chilling injury (CI) symptom of lemon basil was generally characterized by leaf blackening and brown spot on leaveswhich due to the dynsfunction of oil glands (Wongsheree et al, 2009; Pongorsert and Srilaong, 2007).As expected, the CI score of lemon basil increased during stored at 7°C
Summary
Basils (Ocimum sp.), one of most popular culinary herb, are widely used as a flavoring agent in Asian cuisine, especially Thai food. In Thailand, there are three commercial basils; lemon basil (Ocimum x citriodourum), sweet basil (Ocimumbasilicum) and holy basil (Ocimum sanctum) which are widely consumed in country and exported to European and other Western countries in form of cut herb. These basils have commercially grown in European countries during summer period and the consumption demand has increased as its favorable aroma and medicinal properties. The onset of blackening spots of sweet basil held at 4-5°C is 1 day (Lange and Cameron, 1997; Pongprasert and Srilaong, 2007) and that of holy basil held the 5°C noticeably appears in 3 days of storage (Niamthong et al, 2007)
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