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Cold plasma technology offers new opportunities to the decontamination and preservation of fruits and vegetables. In the present research, strawberries were cut into four wedges and then treated with dielectric barrier discharge plasma at 45 kV for 1 min and stored for 1 week (4 °C). Metabolomic analysis suggested that plasma treatment improved the biosynthesis of the metabolites in the “flavones and flavonol biosynthesis” pathway and “biosynthesis of phenylpropanoids” pathway in fresh-cut strawberries. Physiological assay demonstrated that plasma treatment maintained the texture properties and inhibited microbial growth of fresh-cut strawberries. In addition, plasma treatment also promoted the accumulation of total phenolics, total flavonoid, and anthocyanin by enhancing the critical enzyme activities and activating related gene expression in phenylpropanoid as well as reactive oxygen species metabolism, which contributed greatly to the enhancement of antioxidant capacity of strawberry wedges. Our investigation provided a new perspective of the effect of plasma treatment on the safety and quality of strawberry wedges and suggested that cold plasma treatment holds promise as an emerging processing technology for improving the quality and antioxidant activity of postharvest fruits and vegetables.

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The effects of l-arginine (Arg, 1 mM) and/or methyl salicylate (MeSA, 0.05 mM) treatment on gray mold caused by Botrytis cinerea in tomato fruit were studied. Results indicated that Arg or MeSA alleviated the incidence and severity of fruit disease caused by B. cinerea, and that both Arg and MeSA (Arg + MeSA) further inhibited the development of fruit decay. Treatment with Arg + MeSA not only enhanced the activities of superoxide dismutase, catalase, and peroxidase but also promoted the expression levels of pathogenesis-related protein 1 gene and the activities of defense-related enzymes of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase, polyphenol oxidase, β-1,3-glucanase, and chitinase during most of the storage periods, which were associated with lower disease incidence and disease index. In addition, the combined treatment elevated the levels of total phenolics, polyamines, especially putrescine, and nitric oxide. These observations suggest that treatment of fruit with Arg + MeSA is an effective and promising way to alleviate postharvest decays on a commercial scale.

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