Postharvest storage quality of citrus fruit treated with a liquid ferment of Chinese herbs and probiotics
Li Wang, Tiao Ning and Xiaoling Chen
Scientia Horticulturae 255: 169-174. (2019)
2019
บทคัดย่อ
In this study, we produced a novel liquid fermentation compound (LFC) from the co-fermentation of probiotics and Chinese herbs and assessed its benefits on the postharvest storage quality of citrus fruit. Harvested fruit were treated with sterile water (Control), probiotic suspensions (PS), a combination of Chinese herbs (CHC) or LFC for 5 min and then stored at 20 °C and 85–90% RH for 42 d. The results of in vitro tests showed that LFC strongly inhibited the growth of P. digitatum. Storage trials showed that PS, CHC and LFC treated fruits had lower weight loss and higher vitamin C and total soluble solid contents at day 42 after treatment. However, there were no significant differences in firmness among all groups. Only LFC-treatment significantly delayed the loss of titratable acidity content at day 21 after treatment. Interestingly, decay incidence in LFC treated-fruit was also significantly lower than both CHC- and PS-treated fruit (P < 0.05). PAL and PPO activity in LFC-treated fruit were significantly higher than other groups at days 4 and 6, respectively, after incubation (P < 0.05). After incubation with green mold for 8 d, the disease index of fruit treated with PS, CHC, or LFC was 50, 58.3 and 33.3%, respectively, whereas complete decay was observed in water-treated fruit. A significant reduction of lesion diameters, was recorded for LFC-treated fruit, as compared to other treatments. Based on these results, LFC can be considered as a novel, efficient and natural antistaling agent for citrus fruit.