2019 ASHS Annual Conference

In this study we conducted an experiment to optimization of allyl isothiocyanate (AITC) treatment concentration on postharvest quality of blackberries. Freshly harvested blackberry fruit were placed in plastic containers and treated with AITC at 0, 0.5, 1, 2 5 and 10 μL L^-1 for 12 h 4°C and stored 14 d at 4°C, RH 80%. The decay rate of all AITC treated blackberry groups after 14 d of storage at 4°C was lower than the control group. The application of 5 μL L^-1 or higher AITC concentration to blackberry fruits showed reduced total anthocyanin contents, surface color loss, total phenolic contents, and antioxidant activity. Three discriminant metabolites including sucrose, glucose, fructose, pentaric acid were found using an untargeted metabolomics approach among various AITC treatments. These sugars and TCA intermediate may be related to respiration rate. Also, stigamasterol and beta-sitosterol were significantly reduced in 5 and 10 μL L^-1 of AITC concentration. More investigation is still needed to elucidate the AITC treatment effect on blackberry fruit metabolite changes. Nevertheless, the results from this study indicated that 2 μL L^-1 AITC treatment was optimization concentration on blackberry for reduce gray mold and improve shelf-life.