Prolong the postharvest shelf life of spinach through the antioxidative ability of melatonin

Mingying Wang; Jin Xu; Zhaoyang Ding; Jing Xie

doi:10.1016/j.fochx.2023.100769

Prolong the postharvest shelf life of spinach through the antioxidative ability of melatonin

Food Chem X. 2023 Jun 25:19:100769. doi: 10.1016/j.fochx.2023.100769. eCollection 2023 Oct 30.

Authors

Mingying Wang¹, Jin Xu¹, Zhaoyang Ding^{1

2

3}, Jing Xie^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ College of Food Science and Technology, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai 201306, China.
² National Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center for Food Science and Engineering, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai 201306, China.
³ Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Aquatic-Product Processing & Preservation, Shanghai 201306, China.

Abstract

Spinach is also known as Persian cuisine, it is rich in nutrients such as protein, vitamin C and minerals, and has high nutritional value. In this study, Spinach was treated with melatonin in order to prolong its shelf life. Melatonin has strong antioxidant effects as an endogenous free radical scavenger. The spinach was sprayed with 0.10, 0.20 and 0.30 mg/mL melatonin solution after harvesting, and distilled water was used as control for low temperature storage at 4 °C. The results showed that melatonin spraying Spinach delayed the degradation of chlorophyll, especially the treatment of 0.20 mg/mL melatonin was the most effective. The content of soluble sugar and soluble protein in spinach tissue was kept high, the accumulation of malondialdehyde (MDA) was reduced, and the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and peroxidase (POD) were increased. These findings suggested that melatonin treatment may be a useful technique to prolong the postharvest life of spinach and improve its quality.

Keywords: Antioxidative ability; Melatonin; Shelf life; Spinach.