Effect of 1‐methylcyclopropene (1‐MCP) on ripening and volatile compounds of blueberry fruit

Abstract

Blueberry fruit (Vaccinium spp. Berkeley) are popular with people due to the functional components, but they are perishable. The objective of the study was to evaluate the effect of 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) with and without ethylene on ripening and volatile compounds of blueberry fruit. Sensory quality, physicochemical indexes, functional component, antioxidant activity, and principal component analysis of volatile compounds of fruit were detected. The present results indicated that application of ethylene accelerated ethylene production and respiration rate, decreased antioxidant activity and functional components contents of blueberries in comparison with the untreated samples. The degradation effect of ethylene was effectively neutralized by 1-MCP. Treatment of 1-MCP with or without ethylene enhanced firmness, functional components contents, antioxidant activity, and inhibited ethylene production, respiration rate comparing with the control. Furthermore, simultaneous use of ethylene and 1-MCP treatment guaranteed better quality and volatile compounds in blueberry fruit during the whole storage. Practical applications The volatile aroma compounds of blueberries play an important role in enhancing taste. Nevertheless, the use of 1-MCP may reduce the production of aromatic substances, although it can delay the ripening of fruit. Furthermore, consumer difference tests indicated that people can differentiate the 1-MCP-treated apples from the control group. So the commercial application of 1-MCP on fruit is restricted and unfeasible. But a large number of studies on other fruit have shown that combined treatment of 1-MCP and ethylene probably solves this problem. Thus, we tried to apply this method to blueberry fruit, with the purpose of preserving the aroma component while extending shelf life of blueberries.

Influence of 1‐methylcyclopropene (1‐MCP) on ripening and ethylene biosynthesis‐related enzyme gene expression in harvested blueberries

“…Nevertheless, DI and BI of samples treated with ethylene prior to 1-MCP was still observably lower than that of control, especially in later stage of shelf life. Analogously, Serradilla et al (2019) reported that 1-MCP showed a positive impact on DI in early-season sweet cherries "Burlat" that was similar with our previous results on kiwifruits and blueberries (Xu et al, 2020). Furthermore, both Wu et al (2016) and Chen et al (2016) reported a decrease in BI of 1-MCP-treated pears in comparison with the untreated samples.…”

“…Ethylene biosynthesis is regulated by the activity of ACS and ACO, as well as expression of ethylene biosynthesis genes (Liu et al, 2009). In recent years, 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP), as an inhibitor of ethylene action, has played a positive role in extending the shelf life of postharvest fruit (Liu et al, 2018;Saba & Watkins, 2020;Xu et al, 2020). For example, treatment with 1-MCP can prolong storage time and maintain commodity value of peach (Wang, Wei, Chen, et al, 2020;Wang, Wei, Chen, et al, 2020), kiwifruit (Salazar et al, 2019), pear (Chen et al, 2016), jujube (Zhang et al, 2012), blueberry , durian (Thongkum et al, 2018), and apple (Zhou…”

Ethylene Production Affects Blueberry Fruit Texture and Storability

“…However, the role of ethylene in blueberry softening is still not clear as it has been confirmed by contrasting results of several studies (Table 1). Few articles (DeLong et al, 2003;Blaker and Olmstead 2014;Costa et al, 2014) do not show any significant effect of ethylene on fruit texture during ripening and storage, while others (Ortiz et al, 2018;Wang et al, 2020) ethylene (i.e., KmNO4 scrubber) and its perception (i.e., 1-MCP) resulted in textural improvements (Chiabrando and Giacalone, 2011;Ortiz et al, 2018;Wang et al, 2018a;Xue et al, 2020;Xu et al, 2020). In particular, 1-MCP treatment delayed the hemicelluloses solubilization in blueberry fruit (cv.…”

“…Similar inconsistencies regard the role of ethylene in regulating blueberry storability. Available results about increasing the fruit exposure to ethylene, for instance with ethephon or ethylene application (Poole et al, 1998;Costa et al, 2018;Wang et al, 2018b;Xu et al, 2020), or reducing the possible effect of ethylene applying ethylene scrubbers (Wang et al, 2018a;Álvarez-Hernández et al, 2019), 1-MCP (DeLong et al, 2003;Brackmann et al, 2010;MacLean et al, 2011;Blaker and Olmstead, 2014;Deng et al, 2014;Tao et al, 2017;Xu and Liu, 2017;Xu et al, 2020;Xue et al, 2020), or ozone (Song et al, 2003), indicated contrasting results and did not elucidate the role of ethylene on blueberry ripening.…”

Molecular Regulatory Mechanisms Affecting Fruit Aroma

“…Low temperature and controlled ethylene concentration can delay the ripening of fruits and subsequently affect the aroma of horticultural crops. Compared with treatment at the beginning of picking, the application of the ethylene and 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) not only preserved the freshness of stored blueberry fruits but also did not have a significant impact on aroma substances [ 71 ]. The degradation effect of ethylene was effectively neutralized by 1-MCP.…”