Effects of thymol concentration on postharvest diseases and quality of blueberry fruit

Jie Ding; Chunyan Liu; Peng Huang; Yuwei Zhang; Xinjie Hu; Hongying Li; Yan Liu; Liwei Chen; Yaowen Liu; Wen Qin

doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2022.134227

Effects of thymol concentration on postharvest diseases and quality of blueberry fruit

Food Chem. 2023 Feb 15:402:134227. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2022.134227. Epub 2022 Sep 16.

Authors

Jie Ding¹, Chunyan Liu², Peng Huang³, Yuwei Zhang⁴, Xinjie Hu⁴, Hongying Li⁴, Yan Liu⁵, Liwei Chen⁵, Yaowen Liu⁶, Wen Qin⁷

Affiliations

¹ College of Food Science, Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya'an 625000, China; College of Food Science and Technology, Sichuan Tourism University, Chengdu 610100, China.
² College of Food Science, Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya'an 625000, China; College of Food and Pharmacy, Zhejiang Ocean University, Zhoushan 316000, China.
³ College of Food Science, Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya'an 625000, China; Department of Quality Management and Inspection and Detection, Yibin University, Yibin 644000, China.
⁴ College of Food Science, Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya'an 625000, China.
⁵ College of Food Science and Technology, Sichuan Tourism University, Chengdu 610100, China.
⁶ College of Food Science, Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya'an 625000, China. Electronic address: lyw@my.swjtu.edu.cn.
⁷ College of Food Science, Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya'an 625000, China. Electronic address: qinwen@sicau.edu.cn.

PMID: 36155290
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2022.134227

Abstract

In this study, we compared the incidence of postharvest disease and the storage potential of blueberry fruit treated with thymol (inoculated with Aspergillus niger) with those in the control fruit during storage for 42 d at 2 °C. Treatment with 10-30 mg/L thymol was found to be more effective than treatment with higher thymol concentrations of 40-50 mg/L in terms of controlling Aspergillus niger-induced decay. In the thymol-treated blueberry fruit peel, the activities of the disease resistance-related enzymes were significantly enhanced. Furthermore, the 20 mg/L thymol-treated blueberry fruit retained the highest firmness, total soluble solids content, and acceptability score, and it also maintained an unimpaired cell wall structure of pericarp quality. Thus, low-dose thymol-treatment could be a suitable biocontrol agent for controlling postharvest disease and prolonging the storage life of blueberry fruit.

Keywords: Antifungal activity; Aspergillus niger; Blueberry; Postharvest diseases.

MeSH terms

Antioxidants / analysis
Blueberry Plants* / chemistry
Cell Wall
Fruit / chemistry
Thymol / pharmacology

Substances

Thymol
Antioxidants