season is too short for a particular cultivar, grapes can be damaged by cold temperatures before the fruit can mature completely, or vines may not acclimate sufficiently in the fall to avoid injury during the following winter ( Dami et al., 2005
There is a need to develop effective, non-damaging, non-polluting, non-carcinogenic procedures for insect disinfestation and disease control in fresh horticultural products. The loss of ethylene dibromide as a fumigant and the uncertainties of other fumigants, has meant that alternatives are needed. The most likely possibilities include irradiation, heat, cold and controlled atmospheres. Irradiation doses required for sterilization of insects cause only minor physiological changes, while controlled atmospheres appear to require longer periods of exposure than the postharvest life of most tropical fruit. The sensitivity of tropical commodities to temperatures less than 10°C makes cold treatments inappropriate for most tropical commodities. Heat treatments seem to be most promising. For papaya, the requirement is that the fruit core temperature reach 47.2°C, this can occasionally disrupt fruit ripening. The sensitivity to heat is modified by seasonal, variety and rate of heating factors. The sensitivity can be related to the heat shock response and the presence of heat shock proteins.
Longitudinal halves of freshly harvested avocado fruit (Persea americana Mill. `Hass') were pretreated at 38C for 1 hour in a water bath, while the other half remained at 20C in air. Then the entire fruit was either treated from 1 to 10 minute at 50C, or held at 20C (controls). Fruit quality (daily evaluation of browning and internal quality when ripe), and pulse amplitude modulated (PAM) fluorescence measurements, were made on the skin of each fruit half 1 hour after hot water treatment (HWT), 3 hours later, and each subsequent day until ripening. The pretreated half of the fruit showed almost no development of external browning during the ripening period, while the nonpretreated halves were severely damaged by HWTs. External browning increased with longer HWT duration. Heat damage was also evident as hardening of the skin when fruit ripened, and such damage was reduced by pretreatment and increased with longer HWT duration. HWT had a rapid and marked effect on chlorophyll fluorescence (Fv/FM ratio) of avocado skin. Whereas fluorescence of control fruit remained constant over the first 5 days, in both pretreated and nonpretreated fruit, within 1 hour of HWT, the Fv/FM ratio had dropped to near minimal levels, with little further change. The value of Fv/FM 3 to 6 hours after the HWT was directly related to the duration of the HWT (P <0.0001). Although pretreatment almost eliminated browning, little effect of pretreatment could be detected in the Fv/FM ratio. There was a strong negative correlation (r = 0.93, P < 0.0001) between external browning and Fv/FM for nonpretreated fruit, but this correlation was not significant for pretreated fruit. We conclude that chlorophyll fluorescence clearly reflects effects of heat on the photosynthetic systems in avocado fruit, but does not detect the alleviation of heat damage by pretreatments.
. Energy balance models can also be useful for predicting the efficiency of cooling systems to reduce heat damage in fruit crops. For example, Evans (2004) provided equations for estimating skin and core temperatures in apple and was able to simulate
Irradiation is being evaluated as a quarantine treatment of grapefruit (Citrus paradisi, Macf.), but it can cause damage to the fruit. We wanted to determine if pre-irradiation heat treatments would improve fruit tolerance to irradiation as they improve tolerance to low-temperature injury. `Marsh' grapefruit were harvested from interior and exterior canopy positions and irradiated at 0 or 1.0 kGy at a dose rate of 0.148 kGy·min-1 before storage for 4 weeks at 10 °C. Following storage, pitting of flavedo tissue was the most evident condition defect noted as a result of irradiation. Pitting was noted on 15% and 27% of irradiated interior and exterior canopy fruit, respectively, whereas there was no pitting on non-irradiated fruit. Temperature conditioning before irradiation decreased the susceptibility of fruit to damage. Pitting was 26%, 19%, and 17% when fruit were held 2 h at 20 (ambient), 38 or 42 °C, respectively. There was a marked increase in phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) activity following irradiation. Maximum activity (≈18-fold increase) was attained 24 h after irradiation. Irradiation-induced PAL activity was reduced significantly by temperature conditioning at 38 or 42 °C. Exterior canopy fruit flavedo contained higher levels of total phenols, including flavanols and coumarins, compared with interior canopy fruit. The deposition of lignin was not related to canopy position. Neither irradiation nor heat treatment had an effect on total phenols or lignin deposition. It seems that irradiation causes a stress condition in the fruit, which leads to pitting of peel tissue. Heat treatment before irradiation reduced the damaging effects of irradiation.
Irradiation is being evaluated as a quarantine treatment of grapefruit (Citrus paradisi Macf. `Marsh'), but it can cause damage to the fruit. Research was conducted to determine if preirradiation heat treatments would improve fruit tolerance to irradiation as they improve tolerance to low temperature injury and to determine if canopy position influenced fruit tolerance to irradiation. Initially, grapefruit were irradiated at 0 or 2.0 kGy at a dose rate of 0.14 kGy·min-1 and selected biochemical changes were monitored over time. There was a marked increase in phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) activity following irradiation. Maximum activity (≈18-fold increase) was attained 24 hours after irradiation. Subsequently, grapefruit were harvested from interior and exterior canopy positions and irradiated at 0 or 1.0 kGy at a dose rate of 0.15 kGy·min-1 before storage for 4 weeks at 10 °C. Following storage, pitting of flavedo was the most evident condition defect noted as a result of irradiation. Pitting was observed on 27% and 15% of irradiated exterior and interior canopy fruit, respectively, whereas there was no pitting on nonirradiated fruit. Heat treatment before irradiation decreased susceptibility of fruit to damage. Pitting was 26%, 19%, and 17% when fruit were held 2 hours at 20 (ambient), 38 or 42 °C, respectively. Irradiation-induced PAL activity was reduced by temperature conditioning at 38 or 42 °C. Exterior canopy fruit flavedo contained higher levels of total phenols, including flavanols and coumarins compared with interior canopy fruit. Deposition of lignin was not related to canopy position. Neither irradiation nor heat treatment had an effect on total phenols or lignin deposition. Generally, cholesterol, campesterol, stigmasterol, β-sitosterol, and isofucosterol were found to be higher in four steryl lipid fractions in exterior canopy fruit compared with interior canopy fruit. Irradiation increased campesterol in the free sterol and steryl glycoside fractions and decreased isofucosterol in the free sterol fraction. Heat treatments had no effect on individual sterol levels. It seems that irradiation causes a stress condition in the fruit, which leads to pitting of peel tissue. Heat treatment before irradiation reduced damaging effects of irradiation.
and Pedresch, 2014 ; Mari et al., 2010 ) to maintain fruit quality after harvest and to investigate ethylene-related processes in ripening and senescence ( Watkins, 2006 ). Heat treatment has been used in peach fruit to control post-harvest diseases
101 WORKSHOP 13 (Abstr. 669–674) Long-term Recovery Dynamics of Perennial Species Following Tropical Cyclone Damage
in fruit quality and storage ( Lobos and Hancock, 2015 ). Berries exposed to direct sunlight tend to be the most susceptible to heat damage. Unlike leaves that cool via transpiration, blueberries have very few stomata on their surface and, therefore
resulting from RF treatments indicate fruit stress and correlates with the internal damage observed for the same treatments. Heat stress has also been observed in vapor-heated mangoes in which it was attributed to higher respiration rates after treatment