Agro Fossil Free - Effects of salicylic acid combined with gas atmospheric control on postharvest quality and storage stability of wolfberries: Quality attributes and interaction evaluation

General Description

Wolfberry (Lycium barbarum) is abundant in bioactive substances but prone to rapid deterioration after harvest, and thus wolfberry is usually dried. However, drying of wolfberry requires high energy consumption and can normally lower wolfberry bioactive contents. Cold storage, edible coating, and modified atmosphere packaging have been developed to preserve wolfberry but scarce data are available on postharvest quality and storage stability. In particular, the combined effects of salicylic acid (SA) and control atmosphere (CA) on wolfberry quality have not been investigated. In the current study, SA and gas atmospheric control were applied either separately or in combination to explore changes in physiochemical properties during storage. Results showed that color quality and weight loss (WL) were the main indicators of quality change during storage, with high color quality and low WL representing excellent quality. SA and hypoxia (controlled and modified atmosphere conditions) could synergistically suppress respiration rate and antagonistically maintain ascorbic acid (AsA) and color quality, while SA could alleviate physiological disorder. Principal component analysis and cluster analysis verified that CA and SA + CA were excellent in enhancing the stability during storage and exhibited minimal quality deterioration. Thus, combining SA and gas atmospheric control could serve as a potential postharvest hurdle technology for preserving wolfberry. Practical Applications: As a valuable and prestigious traditional Chinese medicine and food material, wolfberry (Lycium barbarum) is highly susceptible to mechanical damage after harvesting and presents a short shelf-life due to rapid softening. Wolfberry is thus usually consumed in dry form. The current study investigated the effects of salicylic acid (SA) and control atmosphere (CA) applied either separately or in combination on the changes in physiochemical properties during storage, and results showed that both CA and SA + CA storages possessed excellent abilities in preserving fresh wolfberry fruit. Therefore, the current study indicated that combining SA and gas atmospheric control could serve as a potential postharvest hurdle technology for preserving wolfberry, which should be very useful for the agriculture and food industry.