Abstract: The purpose of this work was to investigate the effect of near freezing temperature (NFT) storage on chilling injury and active oxygen metabolism of apricot fruit. ‘Xiaobaixing’ apricots from Kuche, Xinjiang were stored separately at near freezing temperature (?1 to ?1.5 ℃) and low temperature (4–6 or 1–2 ℃) for 49 days. Chilling injury incidence, chilling injury index, the activities of catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and peroxidase (POD), superoxide anion radical (O2-·) production rate and the contents of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and malondialdehyde (MDA), as well as cell membrane permeability were measured at every seven days. The results showed that compared with low temperature storage, NFT storage effectively delayed the onset of chilling injury, reduced the incidence of chilling injury, significantly increased the activity of SOD (P < 0.05), delayed the decline of POD and CAT activity, inhibited the content of H2O2 and O2-· generation rate, retarded the increase in MDA content and membrane permeability. Therefore, NFT storage could improve the cold resistance and storability of apricot fruit.

Key words: apricot fruit, near freezing temperature storage, chilling injury, active oxygen metabolism