Postharvest sour cherry quality maintenance and improvement of antioxidant capacity by treatment with malic acid

Fruits are one of the most valuable garden products that play an important role in providing nutritional needs and human health. This group of agricultural products are perishable due to high humidity, high respiration and transpiration, and most of them are destroyed in the post-harvest period. In this study, organic acids including malic acid with different concentrations were used to protect cell membranes, maintain quality and increase shelf life during the postharvest period in sour cherry fruits.

Sour cherry fruits were treated with 0, 2 and 4% malic acid and stored at 1°C with 85% relative humidity for 16 days. Traits such as chilling injury, hydrogen peroxide, lipid peroxidation, ion leakage, antioxidant capacity and antioxidant enzymes including peroxidase, catalase, superoxide dismutase, ascorbate peroxidase were measured.

The results showed that the application of malic acid with both concentrations and at any time intervals from storage led to a reduction in chilling injury, hydrogen peroxide, lipid peroxidation, ion leakage compared to control samples. On the other hand, in fruits treated with malic acid, antioxidant capacity and activity of antioxidant enzymes including peroxidase, catalase, superoxide dismutase, ascorbate peroxidase have increased.

The general results show that malic acid with a concentration of 4% at each time interval has favorable effects on improving the antioxidant activity of the sour cherry fruits during the storage period.
The general results show that malic acid with a concentration of 4% at each time interval has favorable effects on improving the antioxidant activity of the sour cherry fruits during the storage period.The general results show that malic acid with a concentration of 4% at each time interval has favorable effects on improving the antioxidant activity of the sour cherry fruits during the storage period.