Potential Preharvest Application of γ-Aminobutyric Acid (GABA) on Improving Quality of ‘Verna’ Lemon at Harvest and during Storage

Fátima Badiche-El Hilali, Juan Miguel Valverde, Huertas Díaz-Mula, María Serrano, Daniel Valero () and Salvador Castillo
Additional contact information
Fátima Badiche-El Hilali: Departament AgroFood Technology, EPSO-CIAGRO, University Miguel Hernández, Ctra. Beniel km. 3.2, 03312 Alicante, Spain
Juan Miguel Valverde: Departament AgroFood Technology, EPSO-CIAGRO, University Miguel Hernández, Ctra. Beniel km. 3.2, 03312 Alicante, Spain
Huertas Díaz-Mula: Departament Applied Biology, EPSO-CIAGRO, University Miguel Hernández, Ctra. Beniel km. 3.2, 03312 Alicante, Spain
María Serrano: Departament Applied Biology, EPSO-CIAGRO, University Miguel Hernández, Ctra. Beniel km. 3.2, 03312 Alicante, Spain
Daniel Valero: Departament AgroFood Technology, EPSO-CIAGRO, University Miguel Hernández, Ctra. Beniel km. 3.2, 03312 Alicante, Spain
Salvador Castillo: Departament AgroFood Technology, EPSO-CIAGRO, University Miguel Hernández, Ctra. Beniel km. 3.2, 03312 Alicante, Spain

Agriculture, 2023, vol. 13, issue 7, 1-14

Abstract: γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is a naturally occurring plant compound that acts as a signalling agent during stress conditions, mainly due to unstable events, although sometimes the endogenous content does not reach sufficient levels. Thus, the main aim of this study was to apply GABA preharvest treatments in lemon and to study its effects on quality attributes at harvest and during postharvest storage. GABA was applied as foliar spray at 10, 50, and 100 mM, and quality traits during 28 days of storage at two temperatures (at 2 and 10 °C) were determined. Results show that all GABA treatments had a positive effect on reducing the weight losses and fruit softening. In addition, crop yield in terms of kg tree −1 and fruit number tree −1 was improved for the first and second harvest as well as the total phenolics content and total antioxidant activity (TAA). In conclusion, GABA at 50 mM concentration was the most effective preharvest treatment, enhancing shelf life being enhanced for 14 and 7 days at 2 and 10 °C, respectively, with respect to control lemons.

Keywords: crop yield; elicitor; firmness; postharvest; total phenolics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/7/1397/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/7/1397/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:13:y:2023:i:7:p:1397-:d:1193895

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().