Evaluation of the role of lycopene in the tolerance to chilling injury during cold storage of red grapefruit

Authors

  • Joanna Lado Lindner INIA
  • María Jesús Rodrigo Instituto de Agroquímica y Tecnología de Alimentos (IATA), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Avenida Agustín Escardino 7, 46980 Paterna, Valencia, España
  • Lorenzo Zacarías Instituto de Agroquímica y Tecnología de Alimentos (IATA), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Avenida Agustín Escardino 7, 46980 Paterna, Valencia, España

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26461/11.06

Keywords:

Carotenoids, citrus, cold storage, lycopene, postharvest, HPLC

Abstract

Grapefruit are sensitive to develop chilling injury (CI) symptoms during low temperature storage. In red grapefruit Star Ruby chilling damage during cold storage was restricted to yellow areas of the skin, while the red areas that accumulate lycopene remain largely unaffected. CI has been associated with the production of reactive oxygen species and lycopene has potent antioxidant capacity, thus this pigment might be responsible or be involved in the tolerance against oxidative damage. To test this hypothesis, we have compared the postharvest behavior at low temperatures between grapefruit with great differences in lycopene content (0,92vs.45,2 μg/gPF). Fruit with high concentration of lycopene in the skin (50 times) were more tolerant to CI and at the same time had a higher capacity (2-3 times) to scavenger singlet oxygen radical (SOAC). The study of the enzymatic antioxidant and non-enzymatic (ascorbic acid and glutathione) systems did not revealed an important role in the protection against CI. Collectively, these results suggest that in grapefruits singlet oxygen would be involved in the oxidative damage caused by storage at low temperatures and that lycopene may protect against the cell damage caused by this reactive oxygen species, increasing then the tolerance to cold stress.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Published

2016-07-22

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Evaluation of the role of lycopene in the tolerance to chilling injury during cold storage of red grapefruit. (2016). INNOTEC, 1(11 ene-jul), 47-53. https://doi.org/10.26461/11.06