Exogenous spermine treatment modulates senescence and maintains postharvest quality of guava fruit

Abstract

Guava is one of the widely demanded commercial fruits due to its pleasing flavour and rich nutritional value. The fruit has short postharvest life due to rapid ripening, softening and susceptibility to spoilage. In this study, the guava fruits after harvest were treated with spermine (0.5 mM, 1.0 mM and 1.5 mM) and stored at room temperature for 12 days. The spermine 1.5 mM treatment was noted most effective in retaining desirable physico-chemical and functional quality of stored fruit. Fruit under this treatment showed about 44% lower weight loss, ~57% lower decay loss, and higher retention of chlorophyll (~59%), ascorbic acid (~25%), phenolics (~18%) and flavonoids (~28%) compared to control. Lower accumulation of carotenoids (~22%) and malondialdehyde (~41%) was also recorded in 1.5 mM spermine-treated fruits. The treated fruits also showed 14% higher antioxidant capacity and 37% higher radical scavenging activity over control. The study indicated that shelf-life of guava fruit can be extended up to 12 days, at ambient condition with desirable physico-chemical and functional quality attributes by postharvest treatment of 1.5mM spermine.