Abstract: The grapefruit seed extract (GSE),a natural plant extracts from the edible plants used as an extremely potent broad-spectrum bactericide,and fungicide should be very effective for the fruit preservation. In this study,Grape (Vitis vinifera L.) and persimmon (Diospyris kaki L.) easily undergone deterioration,were selected as model fruits. Eight fungi familiar to the rotting cause of grape and persimmon were used to testify the antifungal activity of GSE. The results of antifungal assay by the agar diffusion method indicated that GSE can efficiently inhibit the growth of tested fungi. The values of minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) also range from 39.06×10-6 to 625×10-6 as demonstrated by the similar results with the data taken from agar diffusion assay. In the storage application assay of both grape and persimmon,the obvious differences in sensory quality and microorganism indexes between the GSE treated fruits and control fruits support that GSE has both the strong antifungal activity and antioxidative activity. Polyphenolic compounds,rich in GSE used as the main effective antioxidative component,are capable to prevent fungal infection in storage to a large extent and to postpone ripening and aging of fruits effectively by scavenging the free radical and impacting a series of enzyme relating to postharvest physiological metabolism of fruits,particu-larly in the key parts liking stem and calyx. The obtained results also indicated that GSE can decrease browning and rot ratio,prolong the preservation period,ensure the quality of grape and persimmon and can be used as an effective and safe preservative.

Key words: grapefruit seed extract, preservation, antifungal activity, grape, persimmon