The Study On Changes Of Post-harvest Main Chemical Composition And Forcing Technique Of Chicory Root

The chicon was nutritious, tender, juicy, tasty and flavorful. It containing special bitterness substance had efficacy of antihepatotoxic and cholagogue. Since chicory introduced into our country, it was liked by its nutrition, taste and convenient gastronomy, but it was only seen at saloon bar because its high price. The chicory root contained plentiful inulin and special bitterness, so it was often used as coffee substitute and source of inulin. Recently the planted area of chicory root had shown upward trend, but the storage period of chicory root was short and the chicory root was inclined to rot during storage. The chicon quality after forcing was low and the yield, size, weight and density of chicon was small. In this paper, the changes of main chemical composition of chicory root during vernalization and storage at different temperature, the storage quality of chicory root at different temperature and the factors of affecting forcing were studied. The main results were as follows:1. The chicory root could be forced better after vernalization with low temperture, otherwise, the quality of chicon was worse. The later chicory root harvested, the time of vernalization was shorter and the carbohydrate in it was higher. The content of reducing sugar rose fast and the content of non-reducing sugar declined in a short time after harvested. In addition, the time of haversting was later, the change range of reducing sugar and non-reducing sugar was narrow.2. During storage, the reducing sugar content of chicory root increased rapidly then decreased guadually, non-reducing sugar content and protein content decreased gradually. The content of reducing sugar and non-reducing sugar in the top of chicory root was low relatively, the content of protein was high. The change of reducing sugar, non-reducing sugar and protein was similitude in different part of chicory root—top, middle and below.3. During storage , the reducing sugar content of chicory root which stored at -2℃ was higher than that stored at 0℃, but the non-reducing sugar was lower. The total sugar content in wet weight of chicory root which stored at 0°C was higher than that stored at -2℃, and the total sugar content in dry weight of chicory root was almost equal.4. The chicory roots which were packed with PE filmof 0.04mm thick could be stored...