Open AccessPost-harvest calcium chloride treatments influence fruit firmness, cell wall components and cell wall hydrolyzing enzymes of Ber (Ziziphus mauritiana Lamk.) fruits during storage
Author(s) -
Veena Jain,
Shilpa Chawla,
Poonam Choudhary,
Sunita Jain
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of food science and technology/journal of food science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.656
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 0975-8402
pISSN - 0022-1155
DOI - 10.1007/s13197-019-03934-z
Subject(s) - ziziphus , mauritiana , cell wall , chemistry , calcium , horticulture , enzyme , botany , food science , biology , biochemistry , organic chemistry
Ber fruits of two varieties having variable shelf lives viz. Umran (8-9 days) and Kaithali (4-5 days) given post-harvest treatments of calcium chloride (1% and 2%) were analyzed for various cell wall components, cell wall hydrolyzing enzymes and fruit firmness at 2 days interval until complete decay. There was a continuous decrease in cellulose, hemicellulose and pectin contents during storage in both the varieties with more reduction in Kaithali, a variety having short shelf-life. The decline in cell wall components was accompanied by parallel increase in activities of cellulase, polygalacturonase (PG) and pectin methylesterase (PME). Post-harvest treatment of Ber fruits with calcium chloride resulted in significantly lowering of activities of cellulase (20-22%), PG (23-29%) and PME (25-28%) thereby retaining higher cell wall components viz. cellulose (9-11%), hemicellulose (7-8%) and pectin (12-13%) as compared to their respective control in both the varieties. The delay in cell wall hydrolysis, as mediated by calcium chloride corresponded to the higher retention of fruit firmness.