Role of Nutrients in Modifications of Fruit Quality and Antioxidant Activity

Abstract

Obtaining more plant foods for humans rich in primary and secondary metabolites with a higher nutritional and health value, antioxidant activity, and attractive appearance depends on a group of phytochemicals whose synthesis and accumulation in partial plant organs are subject to regulation at different biological activities such as proteomic, ionomic, metabolomic, transcriptomic, and physiological. The environmental factors (climatic, soil, and orographic) that control these activities are many and interact among themselves and with living organisms. Among the many plant species used in the human diet (fresh or processed), fruit occupies an important place. In the last few decades, fruit production has increased drastically thanks to a series of modern pre- and postharvest operations and measures. Irrigation and fertilization are the most important measures. In this review, the main attention is paid to fertilization, i.e. the influence of essential macro- and microelements on the external and internal fruit quality and its appearance with special emphasis on obtaining safe food. Also, significant attention is paid to tools that can be successfully used for the proper application of fertilizers, i.e. chemical elements in order to eliminate their possible deficiency or prevent excess that can negatively affect the normal growth and development of trees, pollution of fruits and the environment, as well as avoiding unnecessary production costs. For that purpose, numerous literature sources were used, as well as the results of the author's own research. Hence, this review is a synopsis of traditional and new models and trends related to fruit tree fertilization in order to obtain more biologically valuable food.