Exogenous melatonin treatment reduces postharvest senescence and maintains the quality of papaya fruit during cold storage

Dengliang Wang; Mazhar Saeed Randhawa; Muhammad Azam; Hongru Liu; Shaghef Ejaz; Riadh Ilahy; Rashad Qadri; Muhammad Imran Khan; Muhammad Ali Umer; Muhammad Arslan Khan; Ke Wang

doi:10.3389/fpls.2022.1039373

Exogenous melatonin treatment reduces postharvest senescence and maintains the quality of papaya fruit during cold storage

Front Plant Sci. 2022 Dec 6:13:1039373. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.1039373. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ 1Institute of Fruit Tree Research, Quzhou Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Science, Quzhou, China.
² Pomology Laboratory, Institute of Horticultural Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan.
³ Institute of Crop Breeding & Cultivation Research, Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shanghai, China.
⁴ Department of Horticulture, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan.
⁵ Laboratory of Horticulture, National Agricultural Research Institute of Tunisia (INRAT), University of Carthage, Ariana, Tunisia.
⁶ Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan.
⁷ Key Laboratory of Jianghuai Agricultural Product Fine Processing and Resource Utilization, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs/Anhui Engineering Laboratory for Agro-products Processing, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, China.

Abstract

Introduction: Exogenous melatonin (EMT) application has been used to reduce postharvest senescence and improve the quality and antioxidant enzyme activities of papaya fruits during cold storage.

Methods: The effects of exogenous melatonin application (1. 5 mM) were investigated on papaya fruits during cold storage (10°C ± 2°C) for 28 days in the present study.

Results and discussion: The EMT treatment delayed postharvest senescence significantly with lower maturing status compared with untreated papaya fruits (control). In addition, EMT treatment maintained substantially higher titratable acidity values and ascorbic acid content but significantly lower soluble solids content and lower weight loss compared with the untreated fruits. Concerning the antioxidant capacity, the EMT-treated papaya fruit exhibited markedly higher total phenolic content and, consequently, higher DPPH-radical scavenging activity than the control group. The EMT treatment not only kept a higher enzyme activity of superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, and catalase but also significantly inhibited the accumulation of hydrogen peroxide and malondialdehyde, along with satisfying sensory attributes.

Conclusion: The findings of this study indicated that EMT application could be commercially used as an eco-friendly strategy to reduce postharvest senescence and maintain the fresh-like quality traits of papaya fruit during cold storage.

Keywords: Papaya; ROS; antioxidant capacity; biochemical assays; melatonin; postharvest storage; sensory attributes.