Abstract: Objective: To explore the effect of low-temperature plasma treatment on postharvest ripening, senescence, storage quality and antioxidant enzyme activities in Xinjiang ‘Xiaobai’ apricot fruit. Methods: The fruit were treated for 40 s with cold plasma generated at 80, 90 or 100 kV using a dielectric barrier discharge generator and subsequently stored at 4 ℃ and 95% relative humidity (RH) for up to 42 days. Decay index, quality indicators and antioxidant enzyme activities were measured every seven days throughout the storage period. Results: All cold plasma treatments preserved apricot fruit quality better than the control group, with the most pronounced effect being observed with cold plasma generated at 90 kV. On the 42nd day of storage, the decay index of the treatment group was only 24% as compared to the control group, the hardness was nearly 1.5 times higher, the contents of VC and polyphenols were 1.4 and 1.2 times higher, and the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and peroxidase (POD) were increased by 18%, 28% and 23%, respectively. Conclusion: Low-temperature plasma treatment can reduce the decay index, improve the storage quality, and induce the increase of antioxidant enzyme activities in apricot fruit .

Key words: cold plasma; Xinjiang ‘Xiaobai’ apricot; storage; quality