Abstract:

The effects of pre-harvest oligochitosan treatment on Colletotrichum gloeosporioides Penz and the storage quality of citrus fruit were studied in this paper. The results indicated that pre-harvest oligochitosans treatment was capable of increasing the fruit weight and reducing the fruit rotten ratio and drop rate while no marked effect was observed on decreasing the incidence of latent infection. The results also suggested that oligochitosans had obvious effects on storage qualities such as water loss, firmness, the content of soluble protein, soluble solids and titratable acid. Our findings would provide some theoretical basis for the application of oligochitosan in the citrus fruit storage.

Key words: oligochitosan, citrus fruits, storage quality, ripening