Chili pepper is an important vegetable and spice crop with high post-harvest deteriorations in terms of commercial and nutritional quality. Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are eco-friendly light sources with various light spectra that have been demonstrated to improve the shelf-life of various vegetables by manipulating light quality; however, little is known about their effects on the post-harvest nutritional quality of chili peppers. This study investigated the effects of different LED lightings on the post-harvest firmness and nutritional quality of chili peppers. We found that red and blue light could increase the content of capsaicinoids, whereas white and red light could increase the essential and aromatic amino acid (AA) content in pepper. Nonetheless, the influence of light treatments on AA contents and compositions depends strongly on the pepper genotype, which was reflected by total AA content, single AA content, essential AA ratio, delicious AA ratio, etc., that change under different light treatments. Additionally, light affected fruit firmness and the content of nutrients such as chlorophyll, vitamin C, and total carotenoids, to varying degrees, depending on pepper genotypes. Thus, our findings indicate that LED-light irradiation is an efficient and promising strategy for preserving or improving the post-harvest commercial and nutritional quality of pepper fruit.
Keywords: LED irradiation; amino acid composition; capsaicin; pepper; post-harvest quality.