The role of melatonin and pomegranate seed oil in maintaining the quality of Mexican limes during storage

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Research

Authors
M. Mohammadi 1
S. Rastegar 2
A. Rohani 3
1 Ph.D. student Department of Horticultural Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Hormozgan, Bandar Abbas, Iran.
2 Department of Horticultural Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Hormozgan, Bandar Abbas, Iran.
3 Department of Biosystems Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
Abstract
Mexican limes have a limited shelf life due to color changes and reduced freshness. This study evaluated the effects of melatonin (ML) and pomegranate seed oil (PSO) on maintaining postharvest quality at 20 ± 2°C and 50-60% relative humidity. The results showed that melatonin at 100 µM+PSO and 200 µM+PSO exhibited the highest overall fruit acceptability. The control group displayed the most weight loss (20.8%), while PSO demonstrated the least (12.5%). With the exception of the PSO treatment, all other treatments exhibited significantly elevated levels of phenols, flavonoids, and antioxidants. The PSO and control treatments demonstrated the lowest catalase (69 U/g FW) and peroxidase (53.5 U/g FW) activities, while the highest polyphenol oxidase activity (99.6 U/g FW) was also observed in these groups. The control and PSO treatments also exhibited the highest total soluble solids (TSS) content (8.2%) and the lowest acidity (8.5%). Overall, most traits exhibited significant differences between the treatment groups and the control, excluding the PSO treatment.

Keywords Citrus, Postharvest quality, Shelf life, Antioxidant.

Keywords

Subjects

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Available Online from 01 January 2024