Abstract: The edible mushroom Pleurotus geesteranus is delicious and nutritious and has high commercial value. Nonetheless, the mushroom readily loses its freshness during poastharvest storage and transportation. Simulated storage (at room temperature (24 ± 2) ℃) and transportation (at air temperature of 2–25 ℃) experiments of Pleurotus geesteranus were carried out at different mass ratios between cool-storage agent and Pleurotus geesteranus (1:1, 1:2, 1:4 and 0:1). Results showed that cool-storage agent could effectively preserve the quality of Pleurotus geesteranus, delay mass loss, maintain surface color, cell membrane permeability, and the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT), protect the integrity of cell membrane and inhibit the accumulation of malondialdehyde (MDA) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). On the contrary, the quality of Pleurotus geesteranus deteriorated at a ratio of cool-storage agent/Pleurotus geesteranus was 1:1 in the simulated storage experiment. For an economical perspective, the optimal ratio cool-storage agent/ Pleurotus geesteranus was 1:4. In the simulated transportation experiment, the 1:1 ratio of cool-storage agent/Pleurotus geesteranus was most effective in maintaining appearance, reducing mass loss and inhibiting MDA accumulation, the increase in cell membrane permeability and the reduction in SOD activity. Storage and transportation temperature, time and cost, and the dosage of cool-storage agent all should be synthetically considered in practical application.

Key words: cool-storage agent, Pleurotus geesteranus, cell membrane injury, enzyme activity, simulated storage and transportation