Postharvest melatonin treatment inhibited longan (<i>Dimocarpus</i><i>longan</i> Lour.) pericarp browning by increasing ROS scavenging ability and protecting cytomembrane integrity
Tao Luo, Feilong Yin, Lingyan Liao, Yunfen Liu, Boyang Guan, Min Wang, Tingting Lai, Zhenxian Wu, Liang Shuai
Abstract
Abstract Postharvest melatonin treatments have been reported to improve the quality and storability, especially to inhibit browning in many fruits, but the effect had not been systematically investigated on longan fruit. In this study, the effect of 0.4 mM melatonin (MLT) dipping on the quality and pericarp browning of longan fruits stored at low temperature was investigated. The MLT treatment did not influence the TSS content of longan fruits but lead to increased lightness and h° value while decreased a* value of pericarp. More importantly, the treatment significantly delayed the increase in electrolyte leakage and malonaldehyde accumulation, inhibited the activities of polyphenol oxidase and peroxidase, and thus retarded pericarp browning. In addition, the treatment significantly inhibited the production of O 2 •− and H 2 O 2 while promoted the accumulation of glutathione, flavonoids, and phenolics at earlier storage stages in longan pericarp. Interestingly, the activities of ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) were significantly upregulated but activities of catalase were downregulated in the MLT‐treated longan pericarp. MLT treatment effectively enhanced APX and SOD activities, increased flavonoid, phenolics, and glutathione content, protected cytomembrane integrity, inhibited the production of O 2 •− and H 2 O 2 and browning‐related enzymes, and thus delayed the longan pericarp browning.