effect of pre harvest applicationof salicylicacid on post harvest characteristics of pomegranate fruit and storage in cold store

to investigate the effect of different concentrations (0, 0.01% and 0.02%) of salicylic acid (sa) on some quantitative and qualitative characteristics of pomegranate fruit cultivar ‘malase yazdi’ at ripening,2 and 4month ofstorageat5°c, a factorial experiment based on randomized complete block with three replications was conducted. quantitative characteristics including percentage of fruit weight loss, percentage of healthy arils, aril paleness percentage, and fruit quality characteristics including percentage of skin browning and white segments separating the arils (membrane), electrolyte leakage (el), juice ph, titrable acidity, total soluble solids, antioxidant activity, juice ascorbic acid content and fruit taste index were measured. the results showed that with time until two month of storage, the weight loss of fruit had happened, but then the rate of weight loss reduced. with sa application percentage of healthy arils and aril paleness increased. the lowest and highest percentage of membrane browning was related to concentration of 0.01% of sa after two month of storage (14.8%) and control fruits after four months of storage (96.6%), respectively. sa in 0.02% concentration reduced el at harvest but with time the el increased so that sa could not prevent el increases after 4 month of storage. also fruit taste index reduced with increasing in sa concentration. over time and during storage titrable acidity, total soluble solids, juice ph and browning percentage increased significantly while ascorbic acid decreased.