Insight into the Role of Melatonin in Mitigating Chilling Injury and Maintaining the Quality of Cold-Stored Fruits and Vegetables
Hafiz Muhammad Shoaib Shah, Zora Singh, Ebenezer Afrifa‐Yamoah, Mahmood Ul Hasan, Jashanpreet Kaur, Andrew Woodward
Abstract
Chilling injury (CI) causes significant losses in fruits and vegetables during cold storage. CI symptoms exhibited as browning, off-flavour and sunken spots, reduced juice content, uneven ripening and softening in fresh horticultural produce. Application of melatonin (MT) effectively mitigates CI in cold-stored fruits and vegetables. This comprehensive review focuses at discussing symptoms, the mechanism of CI, regulation of melatonin-mediated chilling tolerance, and meta-analysis of CI reduction in horticultural produce. Melatonin mitigates CI, maintains quality of cold-stored horticultural produce by upregulating early hydrogen peroxide signalling, activities of antioxidant enzymes after inhibition of reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation, mitochondrial dysfunction, and membrane leakage.