Author Identifier (ORCID)
Mahmood Ul Hasan: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4044-1391
Zora Singh: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2946-172X
Hafiz Muhammad Shoaib Shah: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6439-5780
Eben Afrifa-Yamoah: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1741-9249
Andrew Woodward: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6322-4958
Jashanpreet Kaur: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7590-1087
Abstract
Persimmon is a climacteric fruit that is highly prone to chilling injury (CI) and softening, which limits its long-term marketability. This study investigated the effectiveness of treatments on persimmon fruit: a 5 mM oxalic acid (OA) dip treatment for 2 min, modified atmosphere packaging (MAP), their combination (OA + MAP), and untreated fruits were considered as control, followed by storage at 0 ± 1 °C for up to 60 days with subsequent 1 day at shelf conditions. The combined OA + MAP treatment alleviated CI incidence, followed by MAP alone and OA treatment in persimmon fruit. Additionally, the OA + MAP treatment significantly suppressed the ethylene production rate (EPR), minimised weight loss (WL), and maintained better fruit texture, including hardness and chewiness. The treatment also effectively reduced malondialdehyde (MDA) production and the activity of lipoxygenase (LOX), as well as hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) production in persimmons. Analysis of cell wall components revealed that OA + MAP-treated fruit maintained higher levels of total pectin (TP), chelate soluble pectin (CSP), sodium carbonate soluble pectin (NSP), and cellulose. Furthermore, separate application of OA or MAP and the combined OA + MAP treatment delayed the activities of pectin methyl esterase (PME), pectate lyase (PL), polygalacturonase (PG), and cellulase (CEL) in comparison with control fruit during storage. These findings demonstrate that the combined application of OA + MAP effectively enhances chilling tolerance and preserves cell wall integrity in persimmons.
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of Publication
1-1-2025
Volume
18
Publication Title
Food and Bioprocess Technology
Publisher
Springer
School
School of Science
RAS ID
82737
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
First Page
9561
Last Page
9573
Comments
Hasan, M. U., Singh, Z., Shah, H. M. S., Afrifa-Yamoah, E., Woodward, A., & Kaur, J. (2025). Pre-Storage application of oxalic acid and modified atmosphere packaging delays degradation of cell wall polysaccharides in persimmon fruit. Food and Bioprocess Technology, 18, 9561-9573. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11947-025-03980-w