Abstract:

Some typical fruit and vegetable such as tomato, cucumber and Brassica chinensis L. var. communis were chosen to investigate the principle of a series of concentrations of 5, 10, 15, 20 and 50 μl /L of nitric oxide (NO) degradation in air and in the presence of fruit or vegetable. The results showed that in the initial period, the rate of loss of NO is much higher than that in the later period. The higher the initial NO concentration is, the rate of loss of NO becomes higher in the initial period. The rate of NO loss is much higher in the presence of fruit or vegetable than in air. Meanwhile the NO/O2 system produces high concentration of nitrogen dioxide (NO2). When the initial NO concentration is higher, the peak value of NO2 becomes higher. While the presence of fruit or vegetable is able to control the accumulation of NO2.

Key words: fruit and vegetable, postharvest, nitric oxide, degradation