Abstract: To address the problems of quality deterioration in green peppers during postharvest storage, such as reddening, shrinkage, and oxidative degradation of nutritional components, this study employed pulsed light (PL) treatment at an intensity of 3 J/cm2 on Capsicum annuum cv. ‘Jing tian 3’. The treated peppers were stored at 25 ℃, and various quality parameters were assessed throughout the storage period, including sensory attributes, mass loss, firmness, the contents of vitamin C, soluble solid content (SSC), chlorophyll, carotenoids, total phenols and flavonoids, and the activities of polyphenol oxidase (PPO) and antioxidant enzymes (including peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT), and ascorbate peroxidase (APX)). This study aimed to elucidate the effect of PL treatment on the storage quality of green peppers. Compared with the untreated control (CK), PL treatment significantly improved the appearance quality of green peppers. On day 10 of storage, PL reduced the mass loss by approximately 12.5% (2.8% vs. 3.2%), the firmness of the treated group was 28 N (compared with 25 N for the control group), and the vitamin C and SSC were 0.2 mg/g and approximately 7.9% higher than those of the control group, respectively. Meanwhile, PL treatment slowed chlorophyll degradation and carotenoid accumulation, thereby delaying fruit reddening. The activities of PPO, POD, CAT, and APX in the PL-treated group were significantly higher than those in the control group at the middle stage of storage (P < 0.05). These results indicate that the treatment with 3 J/cm2 PL effectively delays the reddening and quality deterioration of green peppers during storage.

Key words: Capsicum annuum; pulsed light; ripening; senescence; quality