Effect of gaseous ozone treatment on the aroma and clove rot by Fusarium proliferatum during garlic postharvest storage

Diana De Santis; Stefania Garzoli; Anna Maria Vettraino

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e06634

Effect of gaseous ozone treatment on the aroma and clove rot by Fusarium proliferatum during garlic postharvest storage

Heliyon. 2021 Apr 2;7(4):e06634. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e06634. eCollection 2021 Apr.

Authors

Diana De Santis¹, Stefania Garzoli², Anna Maria Vettraino¹

Affiliations

¹ Department for Innovation in the Biological, Agrofood and Forestry Systems, University of Tuscia, Via S. C. de Lellis 01100 Viterbo, Italy.
² Department of Drug Chemistry and Technology, Sapienza University, Square Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy.

Abstract

It is known that garlic bulbs preserved with traditional methods undergo considerable losses, ranging from 25 to 40%. A frequent cause of these losses is associated with the development of pathogenic fungi, such as those of the genus Fusarium. The effect of ozone on post-harvest garlic bulbs was evaluated. Garlic cloves inoculated with Fusarium proliferatum F21 and F22 strains, were exposed to a continuous gaseous ozone flow (2.14 μg m^-3), during 4 days, 20 h a day. After ozone-treatment, the garlic samples were moved at 22 °C to mimic retail conditions (shelf life). The changes in several quality parameters such as fungal decay and aroma were evaluated on garlic samples, as whole bulbs, cloves with and without tunic, through a sensorial descriptive test, SPME analysis in GC/MS and microbiological approaches. The data collected showed that ozone treatment did not affect the aromatic profile of garlic. A significant detrimental effect of ozone treatment on garlic decay was observed. Our results encourage the use of gaseous ozone treatment for containing garlic fungal decay during its storage.

Keywords: Fusarium proliferatum; Garlic; Ozone; SPME; Sensory analysis.