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

Publication Title

Food and Bioprocess Technology

Publisher

Springer

School

School of Science

RAS ID

82737

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11947-025-03980-w

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Link to publisher version (DOI)

10.1007/s11947-025-03980-w