Intermittent warming in ‘Tahiti’ lime treated with an ethylene inhibitor

Abstract

The storage of ‘Tahiti’ lime under low temperatures allows the marketing period to be extended, however, the loss of the green skin color and the occurrence of chilling injuries (CI) prevent such improvement to be achieved. The purpose of this work was to verify the efficiency of intermittent warming (IW) associated with the use of 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) during the cold storage of ‘Tahiti’ lime. Fruit were treated for 12 h with 1-MCP at concentrations of 0 or 1.0 μl l−1 and then were stored at 5 °C. The fruit were submitted to IW (20 °C for 48 h every 7 days, 20 °C for 48 h every 14 days or 38 °C for 24 h every 14 days). Evaluations were carried out after 30, 60 and 90 days of storage (+3 days of simulated marketing at 20 °C). The occurrence of CI in the fruit was not observed after 30 days of storage, however, after 60 days of storage 40–58% of fruit kept continuously at 5 °C and 12.5–20% of fruit intermittent warmed showed CI. All fruit exhibited CI after 90 days. Warming fruit at 38 °C for 24 h every 14 days caused rot development, loss of green skin color, high respiratory rates, as well as accumulation of high levels of ethanol and acetaldehyde in fruit. Application of 1-MCP improved the maintenance of green color of skin.