Effect of Harvesting Stages and Calcium Chloride Application on Postharvest Quality of Tomato Fruits

Mohammad Nurun Nabi Mazumder,Phebe Ding,Puteri Edaroyati Megat Wahab,Azizah Misran,Azhar Mohamad

doi:10.3390/coatings11121445

Mohammad Nurun Nabi Mazumder, Phebe Ding + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings11121445

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Abstract

Tomatoes are a good source of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and enzymes, which are beneficial to human health. They are one of the most commercially high-value vegetable crops that experience a huge postharvest loss after harvest. The present experiment is conducted to investigate the effect of different maturity stages (mature green, breaker, and half-ripe stage), pre- and post-harvest treatment with different concentrations (0.0%, 1.0%, 1.5%, and 2.0%, w/v) of calcium chloride (CaCl2) on the postharvest performance, antioxidant and enzymatic activity of lowland tomato fruits, stored at ambient temperature (28 ± 2 °C and 75 ± 5% RH). Tomato fruit of mature green stage treated with 2% CaCl2 significantly (p = 0.05) declined the ethylene production (15.53%), weight loss (16.43%), and delayed color development by slowly synthesizes the lycopene content as well as extended the shelf life. The maximum amount of total phenolic content (TPC) was demonstrated at the highest level of CaCl2 (2%) after 20 days of storage life at ambient conditions. The concentration of CaCl2 influenced the activity of different plant defense enzymes, and the higher doses of CaCl2 (2%) accelerated the activity of peroxidase (POD) (13%), polyphenol oxidase (POP) (7.3%), and phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) (8.5%) relative to that of the control samples. Therefore, the tomato producers and traders could extend the storage duration of tomato fruits by harvesting at the mature green stage and applying 2% CaCl2 in both pre-and postharvest at ambient storage conditions.

Highlights

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) belongs to the family Solanaceae and is the most popular, nutritive, and extensively grown versatile vegetable crop, with production ranking second just after potatoes among the horticultural crops all over the world [1]
This study investigated three factors, including harvesting stages, CaCl2 concentrations, and storage durations
The results revealed that the ethylene production of MT-3 tomato fruit at the mature green stage was the lowest initially and reached maximum after 5 days of storage duration for control and lower doses of CaCl2-treated samples compared to the higher doses samples (Figure 1)

Summary

Introduction

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) belongs to the family Solanaceae and is the most popular, nutritive, and extensively grown versatile vegetable crop, with production ranking second just after potatoes among the horticultural crops all over the world [1]. The shelf life of tomato fruit is only one and a half weeks after harvest, and it is challenging to maintain the quality during and after harvest [4]. The magnitude of postharvest losses of tomato fruits is high in many developing parts of the world, as losses occur due to poor agronomic practices, incompetent postharvest handlings methods, inappropriate harvesting stage, improper transportation facility, the unfriendly environment in storage, and infestation of insects [5]. The main obstacle in postharvest shelf life and quality maintenance of tomato fruits is physiological deterioration, consequences of oxidation mechanisms, and the scarcity of convenient postharvest treatments that can decline the deterioration during storage [6]

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