The Research Of Chinese Cherry’s Softening Physiology And Storage Properties

Chinese cherry (Prunus psedoerasus Lindl.) is an important kind of the characteristic fruits in horticulture industry of china. The nutritious fruit is small shape and tastes sweet, short maturity and market sale early. So, Chinese cherry is welcomed by consumer and becoming one of the popular fruits. Recently, the market demand for Chinese cherry is increasing whose industry scale is limited. One serious problem is that Chinese cherry is easy to soften after postharvest. The decrease in flesh firmness is unfavorable to Chinese cherry’s storage and transport. Up to now, the studies about the postharvest of Chinese cherry are limited. It has received little attention about the physiological changes during the delay preservation technology of Chinese cherry. The South area in China the main Production Zone of Chinese cherry, and Zhuji, in Zhejiang Province, is a historical and important production area. This paper used Zhuji’s cultivated Chinese cherry as test object, through measuring changeable relationship of the physiological indicators including fruit appearance, different kinds of pectin and related enzyme activity and so on, to master the Chinese cherry’s physiological changes during ripening and softening. Moreover, during the research of Chinese cherry’s storage, cold storage and Post harvest calcium treatment were used to expend the storage period and study the effects on softening physiology, aiming to provide further theoretical guide for the development and application of Chinese cherry storage technique. There are the main contents and results:1) The research of Chinese cherry’s preharvest softening physiology:The maturation period of Chinese cherry is very short. It’s only about20days for the Chinese cherry fruit from green period to ripe period. With the Chinese cherry fruit’s softening, the flesh firmness decreased rapidly. Continuous degradation from the original pectin to soluble pectin was carried on during the maturation, while the activity peak of Polygalacturonase (PG) and β-galactosidase (β-Gal) respectively showed in the red period and the ripe period. It is very possible that PG and β-Gal enzymes are causing the pectin’s degradation and the fruit’s softening. 2) The research of Chinese cherry’s storage quality and Respiratory index:after harvest of Chinese cherry, the Respiratory rate was rising Rapidly, and the fruit was decayed, losing stems and aggravating the browning degree. Under room temperature (20℃), Chinese cherry couldn’t be stored more than4days. Cold storage and postharvest calcium treatment could inhibit the respiration rate and decay rate and prolong the storage time in different degrees. With the lower of storage temperature, or higher of the calcium concentration, the Chinese cherry’s effect of storage is better.3) The research of cold storage to Chinese cherry’s postharvest softening physiology:The results showed that with the storage temperature descend, the fruit firmness decreased slowly, the decay rate was reduced,0℃was much better than4℃to extend the storage time. The Cold storage is an efficient method to extend the storage of Chinese cherry. The lower of the temperature, the better effect on inhibiting the activities of PG and β-Gal, and delayed the degradation of pectin, stop the fruit from softening and maintain the fruit’s firmness. The results show that cold storage is effective to prolong storage maybe through inhibiting the Pectin and related enzymes’ activities, which are important in fruit softening.4) The research of postharvest calcium treatment to Chinese cherry’s postharvest softening physiology:At the early stage of the storage, Postharvest calcium treatment can significantly improve the flesh firmness of Chinese cherry and inhibit it decline at the storage. Compared with the CK, TSS and fruit quality were improved by Postharvest calcium treatment. The concentration of CaCl2is related to the storage effect,5%CaCl2treatment was more significant than2.5%CaCl2. Postharvest calcium treatment had inhibited PG and β-Gal at the Storage in the late, thereby inhibited the increase of Water Soluble Pectin, stop the fruit’s softening. So, Postharvest calcium treatment played an important role to maintain Chinese cherry’s hardness and storage quality.