Postharvest qualitative variations of two tomato cultivars (Lycopersicum esculentum L.) during storage period

Subject Areas : Agroecology Journal

Sedighe Sadat Khaleghi ¹ , Naser Alamzadeh Ansari ²

1 - Former M.Sc. Student of Department of Horticultural Science, Shahid Chamran University, Ahwaz, Iran
2 - Assistant Professor of Department of Horticultural Science, Shahid Chamran University, Ahwaz, Iran.

Received: 2011-10-12 Accepted : 2012-05-23 Published : 2012-04-20

Keywords: tomato cultivar, Chef, Sunseed, storage life, biochemical variation,

Abstract :

Tomato fruits have some antioxidants like carotenoids, lycopene, vitamin C, vitamin E and phenolic compounds and play an important role in human health. Since the time between fruit harvest and consumption may last several weeks, biochemical changes during the storage period may affect the nutritional value of fruit and these changes may vary in different cultivars. This experiment was carried out to study qualitative characteristics of two tomato cultivars (Chef and Sunseed) from harvest to consumption. Tomato fruit was harvested at the mature green stage and was stored at 16°C and 80% relative humidity for 35 days. The quality factors including firmness, pH, total soluble solids, titratable acidity, TSS/TA, weight loss, chlorophyll and carotenoid content and decay percentage was measured in every seven days during this period. The results showed that firmness, weight loss and chlorophyll content were decreased and TSS, TSS/TA, Vitamin C, carotenoid content and decay percentage increased during postharvest storage in both cultivars. Vitamin C was higher for Chef and weight loss and carotenoid were higher for Sunseed. The results of this study could be applicable for human subject feeding studies that focus on nutritional values of tomato.

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