Effects of storage temperature and nitric oxide on quality and storage life of Naderi pomegranate arils

Softening, enzymatic browning and microbial activity are the most common problems of pomegranate arils during storage. In order to improve these problems, postharvest treatments of nitric oxide and cold storage were studied on pomegranate arils. Therefore, In order to evaluate the effect of temperature and different concentrations of nitric oxide on pomegranate arils, a factorial experiment was conducted based on a completely randomized design with three replications. In this study, nitric oxide was used at concentrations of 0, 5 and 10 µM/L as liquid solutions. The arils were dipped in solution for fifteen seconds and were packed by polyethylene containers after drying at room temperature. They were stored at cold temperatures (2, 4 and 8°C). The qualitative, quantitative and biochemical parameters were measured on days 0, 7, 14 and 21 of the storage period. The ANOVA results showed that the different concentrations of nitric oxide and storage temperatures caused significant differences among most of the evaluated parameters. The exposure of arils to nitric oxide at concentration of 10 µM/L and storage at 8°C caused them lower 50% weight loss and less 21% ion leakage, as well as higher marketability, anthocyanin content, total phenolic and antioxidant activity compared to arils of the control group storage at 2°C after 21 days. In general, arils treated with 10 µM/L of nitric oxide at 8°C showed the best apparent quality and storage life of pomegranate arils.