Physiological and biochemical analysis of peaches maintained under controlled atmosphere

LARA, MARÍA VALERIA; PORRINI, LUCÍA; BUDDE, CLAUDIO OLAF; ANDREO, CARLOS SANTIAGO; MURRAY, RICARDO; DRINCOVICH, MARÍA FABIANA

Mar del Plata

Congreso; XLIII Runión anual de SAIB; 2007

The storage of peaches at 0ºC increases the time between theharvest and consumption but can cause the disorder called chillinginjury. Different strategies have been applied to prevent it,including genotype selection, harvest time and postharvesthandling. In this work, we evaluate the effect on the organolepticand biochemical properties of peaches “Dixiland” kept incontrolled atmosphere (N ) during 3 days at 20ºC (TN) and storedfor another 3 days in regular atmosphere (TN+3). These sampleswere compared with fruits of the same maturity stage: harvest (C),or kept during 3 or 5 days under normal air (C+3, C+5,respectively). After the treatment, TN samples presented muchlower ethylene content than samples (C+3). This was correlatedwith a maintenance of the firmness and in the malic acid contentwith respect to the fruits recently harvest (C). It was also found inTN an increase in fermentation as accounted by and increase in theactivity of pyruvate decarboxylase and alcohol dehydrogenase,and an increase in the ethanol and acetaldehyde content.Adecreasein NAD-malic enzyme, UDP-Glc-pyrophosphorylase and aldolaseactivities was also measured. In summary, this treatment isbeneficial in terms of quality for consumption, keeping almost thesame parameters than the fruits recently harvest.