Pulses of low intensity light as promising technology to delay postharvest senescence of broccoli

FAVRE NOELIA; BÁRCENA ALEJANDRA; VERA BAHIMA JOSÉ; MARTÍNEZ GUSTAVO; COSTA LORENZA

POSTHARVEST BIOLOGY AND TECHNOLOGY

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2018 vol. 142 p. 107 - 114

0925-5214

Visible light irradiance may be a useful technology to delay postharvest senescence of green vegetables. In this work, we studied the effects of low-intensity white, red and far red light pulses on postharvest senescence of broccoli stored in the dark at 20 °C. Daily exposure for 2 h to 20?25 μmol m−2 s−1 of white light delayed yellowing and retained chloroplast components (chlorophyll and soluble proteins). The utilized light intensity was insufficient to re-initiated photosynthesis since total sugar content was lower than initials in irradiated florets. Light treatment resulted in a slower loss of sugars in comparison with the untreated samples, but was not affected by light quality. The effects of red light treatment on chlorophyll a and soluble protein degradation were similar to white light, and opposite to far red light. However, these treatments did not delay chlorophyll b degradation, suggesting that phytochromes could be involved in molecular mechanism of chlorophyll a and soluble protein degradation, but not of chlorophyll b.