Pulsing Treatments of Abscisic Acid and Sucrose for Improving Postharvest Quality of Cut Lily Flowers

Although it is often considered as a senescence phytohormone, abscisic acid (ABA) at low concentration together with sucrose as pulsing solution displayed preservative effect on cut lily flowers. In order to further clarify the preservation mechanism of ABA, the effects of ABA pretreatment on physiological index and ethylene release were investigated. The addition of 2 mg · L^<-1> ABA to sucrose increased proline content in petals. This result suggested that ABA application resulted in water stress of the cut flowers to some extent. However the pretreatment of the cut lilies with ABA at 2 mg · L^<-1> delayed the degradation of soluble proteins, and promoted the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) enzyme, which decreased the damage to cells induced by reactive oxygen species (ROS). It was also found that the pretreatment with 2 mg · L^<-1> ABA inhibited ethylene release