Optimal Harvest Time for Preventing Hot Pepper Seed Browning during Cold Storage Is Associated with Seed Maturity

Me-Hea Park, Jung-Soo Lee, Eun-Young Yang, Gyung-Ran Do and Yoon-Pyo Hong
Additional contact information
Me-Hea Park: Postharvest Research Division, National Institute of Horticultural & Herbal Science, Wanju 55365, Korea
Jung-Soo Lee: Postharvest Research Division, National Institute of Horticultural & Herbal Science, Wanju 55365, Korea
Eun-Young Yang: Vegetable Research Division, National Institute of Horticultural & Herbal Science, Wanju 55365, Korea
Gyung-Ran Do: Planning and Coordination Division, National Institute of Horticultural & Herbal Science, Wanju 55365, Korea
Yoon-Pyo Hong: Postharvest Research Division, National Institute of Horticultural & Herbal Science, Wanju 55365, Korea

Agriculture, 2020, vol. 10, issue 12, 1-13

Abstract: Chilling injury (CI), which causes seed browning in pepper, may arise following long-term cold storage, and is a major cause of postharvest losses. To explore potential strategies of minimizing the associated postharvest losses, the present study investigated the optimal pepper harvest time that could reduce levels of seed browning, in addition to the relationship between fruit maturity and seed browning. Fruits harvested 15 days after flowering (DAF) were sensitive to cold storage at 4 °C and exhibited 100% seed browning (CI index, 4.0) ; in contrast, the seed browning rate of fruits harvested 35 DAF was 10% (CI index, 0.4) within 7 days of cold storage. Seed antioxidant activity was higher in seeds harvested at early stages (15 DAF to 20 DAF) than in seeds harvested at later stages (40 DAF to 50 DAF) at the beginning of storage. Pericarps of fruit harvested at 50 DAF exhibited the highest antioxidant activity. Lipoxygenase, catalase, and peroxidase activity, and the expression levels of cell wall-related genes, pectin methylesterase-like protein, and endo-β-1,4-glucanase were higher in seeds of immature fruit harvested 15 DAF than in seeds of mature fruit harvested 35 DAF. The seeds of the fruit harvested 35 DAF were fully developed with the seed coat separated from the endosperm and did not turn brown under low-temperature storage. The lack of seed browning observed in mature fruit under low-temperature storage could be attributed to physical protection provided by the seed coat rather than cold stress resistance conferred by antioxidants.

Keywords: chilling injury; pepper; seed browning; maturity; harvest time (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: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/10/12/585/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/10/12/585/ (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:10:y:2020:i:12:p:585-:d:451733

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 ().