Prestorage Heat Treatment To Maintain Nutritive and Functional Properties during Postharvest Cold Storage of Pomegranate

• Published in: Journal of agricultural and food chemistry Vol. 54; no. 22; pp. 8495 - 8500
• Main Authors: Mirdehghan, Seyed Hossein, Rahemi, Majid, Serrano, María, Guillén, Fabián, Martínez-Romero, Domingo, Valero, Daniel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Chemical Society 01.11.2006
• Subjects: anthocyanins; Anthocyanins - chemistry; Anthocyanins - metabolism; antioxidant activity; Antioxidants - metabolism; ascorbic acid; Ascorbic Acid - chemistry; Ascorbic Acid - metabolism; Biological and medical sciences; Carbohydrate Metabolism; Carbohydrates - chemistry; citric acid; cold storage; Cold Temperature; Food industries; Food Preservation; food storage; fructose; Fruit and vegetable industries; fruit composition; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; glucose; Hot Temperature; hot water treatment; malic acid; nutrient content; oxalic acid; phenolic compounds; pomegranates; postharvest treatment; Punicaceae - chemistry; Punicaceae - metabolism; shelf life; storage quality; Temperature; Heat treatment; sugars; Fruit; Cold; Postharvest; Environmental factor; Punica granatum; Antioxidant; Properties; Organic acids; Warehousing; Dicotyledones; Angiospermae; Food preservation; Phenols; Punicaceae; Spermatophyta; Pomegranate; total antioxidant activity; Sugar; phenolics
• ISSN: 0021-8561; 1520-5118
• DOI: 10.1021/jf0615146

Heat treatments have been used to extend storability of several fruits, although no information is available about their effects on nutritive and functional properties in pomegranates, which was the objective of this research. Thus, pomegranate fruits were heat treated (dips at 45 °C for 4 min) and stored at 2 °C for 90 days. Every 15 days, samples were taken and further stored 2 days at 20 °C for shelf life study. Arils from heat-treated pomegranates exhibited higher total antioxidant activity than controls, which was correlated primarily to the high levels of total phenolics and to lesser extent to ascorbic acid and anthocyanin contents. Additionally, the levels of sugars (glucose and fructose) and organic acids (malic, citric, and oxalic acids) remained also at higher concentrations in arils from treated fruits. With this simple and non-contaminant technology, the functional and nutritive properties, after long periods of storage, could then be even greater than in recently harvested fruits, thus providing a high content in health-beneficial compounds to consumers after the intake of these fruits. Keywords: Organic acids; phenolics; sugars; total antioxidant activity