Impact of Pre-harvest Spry Salicylic acid Application on Storability, Postharvest Quality and Antioxidant Activity Apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.)

The limited postharvest storage life of apricot causes the goal of presenting a solution in this manuscript to improve the postharvest storage of studied apricot cultivars. Studying the effect of different concentration of pre-harvest salicylic acid on quality attributes and antioxidant activity of apricot during storage is the approach in used. The apricot cultivar(Nori) were sprayed at the 3 weeks before commercial ripening stage, with 1, 2, 3 and 4 mM salicylic acid as well as distilled water (control). At commercial ripening stage, apricot fruit were harvested and immediately transported to the laboratory, and then fruits were packed in boxes with polyethylene cover and stored at 4°C and 95% relative humidity for 20 days. The changes in weight loss, fruit firmness, total soluble solids, titratable acidity, pH, ascorbic acid, total phenolics and antioxidant activity were estimated after 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 days during storage. The results showed that the weight loss, total soluble solids, pH increased significantly while the fruit firmness, titratable acidity, ascorbic acid, total phenolics and antioxidant activity decreased significantly during storage for both cultivars. During this stage, a significant difference between control and salicylic acid treatments in all measured parameters is observed. The salicylic acid treatments reduced significantly the weight loss and maintained their firmness. In this condition, the highest and lowest of titratable acidity, ascorbic acid, total phenolics and antioxidant activity were observed in treatments of 4 mM salicylic acid and control, respectively. The data revealed that the quality of apricot fruits was improved by the use of salicylic acid treatment due to its effect on delaying the ripening processes.