Controlled Atmosphere Storage Alleviates Hass Avocado Black Spot Disorder

Abstract

As it was previously reported, black spot development in the skin of Hass avocado has been related to a decreased antioxidant defense system. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of different postharvest storage conditions on controlling black spot development targeting their effect on the antioxidant system (non-enzymatic and enzymatic) of the skin. Four postharvest treatments (T1: regular air storage (RA) at 5 °C for 40 d; T2: controlled atmosphere storage (CA) of 4 kPa O2 and 6 kPa CO2 at 5 °C for 40 d; T3: 10 d RA + 30 d CA and T4: 5 µM methyl jasmonate (MeJA) for 30 s + 10 RA + 30 d CA) were tested on controlling black spot incidence in fruit from six orchards from different agroclimatic zones and harvests. Then, on two selected orchards and harvests, the evolution of total phenolics (TPC), antioxidant capacity (AC) and antioxidant enzymes (catalase (CAT), polyphenol oxidase (PPO), superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL)) was monitored. Results revealed that incidence of black spot disorder was not associated to an agroclimatic zone and harvest stage. Immediate application of CA (T2) controlled black spot development during prolonged storage (40 d) and under these conditions TPC content remained higher compared to the other treatments. No clear role of CAT, PPO, SOD, POD and PAL on controlling black spot was observed. The results obtained are of value for the Hass avocado supply chain since a clear performance of CA was evidenced that will result in reduction of postharvest losses associated to this problem.

Keywords

• epicarp
• phenolics
• antioxidant activity
• quality attributes