Senescence and Postharvest Performance of Cut Nerine sarniensis Flowers: Effects of Cycloheximide

A study was conducted to determine the effects of pretreatment at varying concentrations of Cycloheximide (CHI) on senescence and postharvest performance in Nerine sarniensis. At a particular threshold concentration CHI delays senescence and above which it prevents flower opening and promotes senescence. The fact that cycloheximide delays tepal senescence demonstrates the synthesis of particular proteins probably enzymes, responsible for degradation of cellular constituents, executes the cell death programme in flower tepals. Pretreatment of scapes with CHI at 0.01 and 0.05 mM concentrations was found to delay visible signs of senescence, maintain a sustained rate of flower blooms and increase fresh and dry mass, besides lowering electrical conductivity of ion leachates and solution absorption. An increase in total sugar, phenolic and soluble protein content was observed with a concomitant decrease in a-amino acid content. Pretreatment of scapes with 0.05 or 0.01 CHI for 1 h can be used as an effective treatment to improve the post harvest longevity in this flower system.