Postharvest hexanal application delays senescence and maintains quality in persimmon fruit during low temperature storage.

Abstract

Persimmon (Diospyros kaki L.) fruit is characterized by rapid metabolic changes following ripening, and softening occurs due to the gradual breakdown of the cell membrane by the direct catabolic cascades of the phospholipase-D enzyme on the phospholipid bilayer. The cell membrane weakening is also enhanced by the generation of ROS during stress conditions such as cold storage and postharvest handling. This research evaluated the postharvest hexanal dipping application on persimmon fruit storage quality. The response of "MKÜ Harbiye" persimmon fruit to exogenous hexanal at different concentrations (0.04% and 0.08%, named as HEX-I and HEX-II, respectively) on quality parameters, chilling injury (CI), microbial growth, antioxidant compounds, and free radical scavenging capacity (FRSC) during storage at 0 °C and 80-90± 5% RH for 120 d were evaluated. Both hexanal treatments retained quality and delayed senescence, as indicated by greener peel (lower a* and L* values), higher firmness, total phenol concentration (TPC), FRSC, and titratable acidity (TA), but lower weight loss, electrical conductivity (EC), rate of CO2 , ethylene production, decay, and microbial growth than the control. Total soluble solids (TSS) were lower in treated fruit than the control up to 100 days, but it was much lower in HEX-I treatment as compared to HEX-II treatment. HEX-I treatment exhibited lower CI than the other treatments during storage. Hexanal at 0.04% could be used to increase the storage period of "MKÜ Harbiye" persimmons up to 120 d at 0 °C and 80-90± 5% RH by retaining quality and delaying senescence. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.