2015 Volume 14 Issue 1 Pages 51-59
Effects of preservatives containing Artemisia capillaris Thunb. Extract (ACE), SK-253 and SK-202, applied on a packing-house line on reducing rind injury, fruit rot, and fruit quality were investigated in medium-late-maturing citrus ‘Kiyomi’ (Citrus unshiu Marc. × C. sinensis Osb.) fruit stored in a corrugated cardboard box for practical use. The ‘Kiyomi’ fruit gently wiped with a cloth impregnated with SK-253 showed significantly reduced weight loss than the control, but fruit treated with SK-202 did not. The spotted area per fruit tended to be smaller in order of SK-253, SK-202, and control. The incidence of rind injury with SK-202 treatment on the packing-house line was 2.3% in corrugated cardboard boxes randomly collected from different lots, whereas that of untreated fruit was 11.8%. Fruit rot with SK-202 treatment was also lower than in untreated fruit. The rate of good-quality fruit with SK-202 treatment on the packing-house line was approximately 10% higher than in untreated fruit. Furthermore, SK-253 treatment on the packing-house line led to reductions in ethylene evolution and the respiratory rate of fruit along with a lower incidence of rind injury compared with untreated fruit manually sorted by hand. It is suggested that ACE treatment on the packing-house line is effective to reduce damage caused by mechanical shock on passing along the line.
