Effects of salicylic acid preharvest and Aloe vera gel postharvest treatments on quality maintenance of table grapes during storage
Abdollah Ehtesham Nia, Shirin Taghipour, Sara Siahmansour
Abstract
This study aimed to investigate the effect of preharvest salicylic acid (SA) (2 and 3 mM) and postharvest Aloe vera gel (AV) coating (25% and 33%) on the postharvest characteristics of Vitis vinifera L. fruits stored 4 ± 0.5℃ for 32 days. The results showed that all SA + AV treatments significantly reduced the incidence of decay and weight loss of grapes. The principal component analysis (PCA) showed that SA (2 and 3 mM) combined with AV (25%) coating had the most significant effect on increasing the grape's ascorbic acid and anthocyanin content. Besides, SA (2 and 3 mM) combined with AV (33%) coating had a stronger promoting effect on solid soluble content, firmness, total phenol content, antioxidant capacity, titrable acidity, and peroxidase activity. Overall, it is concluded that foliar-applied SA alone was not effective in increasing physicochemical properties, and using AV coating after foliar-applied SA can have the greatest effect on traits. These results showed that the preharvest and postharvest treatments of grapes with SA and AV, respectively, could prolong the storage life of table grapes and maintain their quality.