Effects of gradual cooling treatment on the skin blackening and physicochemical characteristics of ‘Chuhwang’ pear fruit

Abstract

Chuhwang' pear fruit was harvested at 187 days after full bloom and stored at 0℃ for 70 d after gradual cooling (GC) treatment for 20 d. Direct cooling (DC) treatment was used as a control, and this involved direct storage at 0℃ after harvest. Following GC treatment, a weight loss of 4.62% was recorded. In addition. after 30 d of storage at 0℃, the incidence of skin blackening was almost completed and incidence rate in GC treatment significantly decreased to 13.9% compared to 72.2% in DC treatment. Furthermore, in term of GC treatment, the total color differences (ΔE), hardness, and sucrose contents were somewhat lower, but the electrolyte leakage rate and respiration rate were slightly higher than those of DC treatment. Moreover, the contents of hexose, ascorbic acid, and total polyphenol and DPPH radical scavenger activity were slightly higher for the GC treated samples. The activities of polyphenol oxidase and lipoxygenase and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances were low following GC treatment, and no significant differences in the antioxidant enzyme activities were observed between treatment groups. Therefore, these results indicate that the GC treatment prior to cold storage appears to inhibit skin blackening in 'Chuhwang' pear fruit by decreasing the chilling sensitivity.

Genotyping-by-Sequencing Derived Genetic Linkage Map and Quantitative Trait Loci for Sugar Content in Onion (Allium cepa L.)

“…Sugar content was analyzed according to the method described by Choi et al [43] with a slight modification. In detail, 10.0 g of fresh onion bulbs with bark removed, which were advanced from each F 2 individual plant, were homogenized in 20.0 mL of distilled water with homogenizer (T25, IKA, Labortechnik, Germany).…”