Improvement Storability of ‘Angeleno’ Plum with the Combination of 1-Methylcyclopropene Treatment and Controlled Atmosphere Storage

Mehmet Ali Koyuncu,Fatma Koyuncu,Derya Erbaş

doi:10.15832/ankutbd.342949

Abstract

The combined effects of postharvest 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) treatment and controlled atmosphere (CA) storage on storage life and quality of ‘Angeleno’ (Prunus salicina Lindl.) plum were investigated after being treated with 1-MCP (625 ng g-1) at room temperature for 12 h. Following the treatment, fruit were stored in normal atmosphere (NA) and CA (1% O2-3% CO2) at 0 ºC and 90±5% relative humidity for 120 d. Fruit firmness, weight loss, respiration rate, ethylene production, soluble solid content, titratable acidity, fruit skin color and sensorial evaluation (external appearance, taste and chilling injury) were performed at harvest date and one month intervals during storage. Only 1-MCP treatment delayed the change in properties related to fruit ripening such as fruit softening, decrease in titratable acidity and increase in soluble solid content. Nevertheless, these effects were significantly higher when 1-MCP-treated plums were stored in CA conditions. The highest color change was found in NA conditions. ‘Angeleno’ plum stored in CA conditions gave the best results in terms of some quality parameters during storage. The combination of 1-MCP and CA storage prolonged storage life of ‘Angeleno’ plum compared to other treatments. These result demonstrated that the postharvest 1-MCP treatment can be used in the cold storage of Angeleno plums.

Highlights

Plum is a highly perishable climacteric fruit (Khan & Singh 2009) and postharvest softening is a major factor limiting the storage period (Menniti et al 2006)
Plums were exposed to four different treatments (100 kg plums in each group): 1. Fruit without 1-MCP treatment were stored in normal atmosphere (NA) conditions (NA/Control); 2
Less weight loss in plums treated with 1-MCP and stored in controlled atmosphere (CA) may be due to retarded senescence and constant relative humidity of CA compared to NA

Summary

Introduction

Plum is a highly perishable climacteric fruit (Khan & Singh 2009) and postharvest softening is a major factor limiting the storage period (Menniti et al 2006). Some of the strategies reported to retard metabolic changes and to improve storage life and quality in plum, includes: lowering the storage temperature, modifying air composition, stored at controlled atmosphere (CA) conditions (reducing O2 and increasing CO2 concentrations) and inhibition of ethylene production (Khan & Singh 2009). These strategies may be limited because of the appearance of storage

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion