Low temperature conditioning reduces chilling injury incidence in okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L.) pods

Introduction – Immature okra pod possess high respiration activity and low storage temperature is commonly exploited to lowering down the metabolic process. However, the okra is of tropical origin and its susceptibility to chilling injury (CI) causes further problems in postharvest storability. Therefore, �� ��ϐ������� ��� �����������������ȋ���Ȍ on CI was determined in the present study. Materials and methods – The freshly harvested pods were preconditioned at 13 °C for 24 h followed by storage at 4 °C while control pods were kept directly at 4 °C, for 16 d and transferred to 25 °C for 2 h. Results and discussion – The results showed that the LTC treatment suppressed the development of CI effectively whereby no CI was observed for 8 d of storage. Furthermore, LTC reduced seed browning with concomitant low polyphenol oxidase activity. Additionally, LTC inhibited accumulation of O2 – , H2O2 and malondialdehyde ������Ǥ�������ǡ��������������������ϐ��- vonoids content, catalase and superoxide dismutase activities, and induced DPPH radical scavenging activity and proline content in pericarp, thus coping with oxidative stress at low temperature. Conclusion – LTC treatment enhances chilling tolerance and maintains the quality of okra pod during low temperature storage

Measurement of mango firmness by non-destructive limited compression technique

Thai mango 'Nam Dok Mai Si-Thong' has an attractive golden yellow skin colour even in immature fruit, not ready for consumption. Firmness becomes an important quality attribute to assess the ripening stage of the fruit during storage. In this study, the possibility of a non-destructive method using a texture analyser for assessing the firmness behaviour during storage was investigated in three different experiments for (1) probe selection, (2) distance selection using the selected probe and (3) evaluation of the selected probe and distance on mango quality. The results revealed that an aluminium flat probe with 35 mm diameter is a suitable probe for measurement. Limited distance compression at 1 mm was selected since that combination did not leave any compression marks on the fully ripened mangoes. Evaluation of mango quality attributes obtained by this technique could be used to assess non-destructively the firmness behaviour of the mango fruit during storage. The technique can be used to monitor the firmness of mango fruit on an individual basis, using the same fruit in successive assessments. Non-linear indexed regression can be applied to extract information on the behaviour and variation of firmness of individual mangoes. Obtained explained parts (R2 adj) frequently are well over 90%.</p