Effect of postarvest elicitors on ‘fuyu’ persimmon quality during cold storage

Proceedings of the International Conference “Environmentally friendly and safe technologies for quality of fruit and vegetables”, held in Universidade do Algarve, Faro, Portugal, on January 14-16, 2009. This Conference was a join activity with COST Action 924.To induce resveratrol synthesis and reduce skin browning in ‘Fuyu’ persimmons, fruit were treated directly after harvest with the following elicitors: UV irradiation, ozone, phosphonate, or acibenzolar-S-methyl and then kept for three months at -0.5 °C in air storage at around 95% relative humidity. Traces of transresveratrol were detected in the skin of the persimmons at harvest, but after treatment and cold storage this compound was not found. After shelf-life (storage plus 5 d at 20 °C), the soluble solids content (SSC), reducing and non-reducing sugars and total polyphenols were not significantly influenced by any of the elicitor treatments. Fruit treated with ozone showed a higher reducing sugar content but developed skin damage, flesh browning and small internal cavities. These results were correlated with the skin colour. Fruit treated with acibenzolar-S-methyl had the highest flesh firmness and total polyphenol content. However, this treatment had a higher skin browning index after shelf-life