γ-Aminobutyric acid treatment reduces chilling injury and improves quality maintenance of cold-stored Chinese olive fruit.

ABSTRACT

This study developed a useful technique to maintain quality and mitigate chilling injury of cold-stored Chinese olive fruit. Influence of dose (0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 mM) of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) on the quality attributes and chilling damage of Chinese olive when stored at 2 °C for 100 d was investigated. Compared to control samples, GABA-treated fruit displayed lower chilling injury index, cell membrane permeability, and weight loss percentage, but higher hue angle h° value, higher levels of chlorophyll, total soluble sugar, sucrose, total soluble solids, titratable acid, and tannin, and 1.0 mM GABA is the optimal concentration to retain the quality attributes and reduce the chilling injury of Chinese olive fruit during cold storage.