Effect of Malic Acid and Calcium Treatments on Quality Characteristics of Apple Fruits During Storage

Apple texture can deteriorate during cold storage, resulting in softness and mealiness. The purpose of this work was to estimate shelf-life and to study the behavior of Jonagold apples kept at 0-2C in a normal atmosphere. The experiment was started in season 2010-2011 and fruit weight losses, fruit firmness, Total Soluble Solid (TSS), pH, Titratable acidity, Total soluble solids/titratable acidity ratio, Thiault index, Perlim index, Ethylene production, Peroxidase and Catalase enzyme activities were measured at 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 120 and 150 th days of postharvest life. The fruits were immersed in distilled water, three malic acid concentrations (0, 100 and 150 mg-1) or at three calcium concentrations (0, 0.35 and 0.7% w/v). Results showed that fruit weight loss significantly decreased in malic acid+calcium treatments in comparison to control. Also, results showed that malic acid+calcium treatments increase fruit firmness, Catalase activity (CAT), Titratable acidity (TA) and Perlim index while decreasing of pH, Total soluble solids/Titratable acidity ratio and Peroxidase activity (POD) during cold storage at 0-2C for 5 month (p=0.05). The results showed that malic acid+calcium treatments application was influenced on ethylene in comparison to control. In general, this experiment showed that post-harvest malic acid+calcium treatments prevented fruit softening and decreased weight losses.