Preharvest and postharvest factors influencing vitamin C content of horticultural crops

نویسندگان

  • Seung K. Lee
  • Adel A. Kader
چکیده

Vitamin C, including ascorbic acid and dehydroascorbic acid, is one of the most important nutritional quality factors in many horticultural crops and has many biological activities in the human body. The content of vitamin C in fruits and vegetables can be influenced by various factors such as genotypic differences, preharvest climatic conditions and cultural practices, maturity and harvesting methods, and postharvest handling procedures. The higher the intensity of light during the growing season, the greater is vitamin C content in plant tissues. Nitrogen fertilizers at high rates tend to decrease the vitamin C content in many fruits and vegetables. Vitamin C content of many crops can be increased with less frequent irrigation. Temperature management after harvest is the most important factor to maintain vitamin C of fruits and vegetables; losses are accelerated at higher temperatures and with longer storage durations. However, some chilling sensitive crops show more losses in vitamin C at lower temperatures. Conditions favorable to water loss after harvest result in a rapid loss of vitamin C especially in leafy vegetables. The retention of vitamin C is lowered by bruising, and other mechanical injuries, and by excessive trimming. Irradiation at low doses (1 kGy or lower) has no significant effects on vitamin C content of fruits and vegetables. The loss of vitamin C after harvest can be reduced by storing fruits and vegetables in reduced O2 and/or up to 10% CO2 atmospheres; higher CO2 levels can accelerate vitamin C loss. Vitamin C of produce is also subject to degradation during processing and cooking. Electromagnetic energy seems to have advantages over conventional heating by reduction of process times, energy, and water usage. Blanching reduces the vitamin C content during processing, but limits further decreases during the frozen-storage of horticultural products. © 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

منابع مشابه

Preharvest Factors Influencing Postharvest Quality of Tropical and Subtropical Fruit

Climate/environment Rootstock/scion Planting design Pruning practices Pest management Irrigation Plant growth regulators Plant nutrition The goal for postharvest physiologists, whether they are working in basic or applied research, is to maximize the postharvest quality of horticultural commodities. Quality relates to several factors that can be commodity specific and mean different things to d...

متن کامل

Improvement in vase life of cut rose cv. “Dolce Vita” by preharvest foliar application of calcium chloride and salicylic acid

Rosa hybrida L. is an important commercial cut flower. Salicylic acid (SA) and calcium chloride (CaCl2) act as endogenous signal molecules responsible for growth parameters in plants. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of preharvest SA and CaCl2 treatments in extending the vase life of cut rose flowers. Therefore, a factorial experiment based on completely randomized design with ...

متن کامل

The Effect of UV-C Irradiation on Rot Control and Postharvest Quality of Greenhouse Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum cv. Newton)

Tomato is one of the most important horticultural crops that is corruptible and susceptible to microbial contamination. In this study, the effect of UV-C at five different irradiation intensities (0, 3, 6, 9 and 12 kJ/m2) on rot control and postharvest quality of greenhouse tomato was investigated. Tomato (cv. Newton) fruits were harvested from a commercial greenhouse at vine-ripe stage and aft...

متن کامل

An overview of preharvest factors influencing mango fruit growth, quality and postharvest behaviour

Mango, a tropical fruit of great economic importance, is generally harvested green and then commercialised after a period of storage. Unfortunately, the final quality of mango batches is highly heterogeneous, in fruit size as well as in gustatory quality and postharvest behaviour. A large amount of knowledge has been gathered on the effects of the maturity stage at harvest and postharvest condi...

متن کامل

Evaluation the Preharvest Application of Iron and Nitrogen on Some Qualitative Characteristics of Two Apple Cultivars during Cold Storage

Apple is one of the most important fruits in temperate zones with a long post-harvest life during cold storage. A factorial experiment, in a randomized completely block design was used to investigate the preharvest application of Iron (0, 500 and 1000 mg Fe-EDDHA per tree) and nitrogen (0, 48 and 96 g ammonium nitrate per tree( on some postharvest qualitative characteristics in "Red spur" and "...

متن کامل

ذخیره در منابع من


  با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

عنوان ژورنال:

دوره   شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 2000