Effect of 1-methylcyclopropene on cactus pear fruit at different maturity stages during storage

1-Methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) is an ethylene antagonist widely used to retain quality and prolong the postharvest storage period of various climacteric fruits. To date, there is little information about the effects of 1-MCP on postharvest storage performance of cactus pear fruits. Recently, data revealed that exposure of 1-MCP at 1000 ppb had several beneficial effects in preserving postharvest quality of cactus pear fruits, as indicated by inhibition of peel color change. In this paper, we investigated the effect of 1-MCP on quality of cactus pear fruit harvested from the scozzolatura crop at early and late ripeness stages. Fruit was tested at two different ripening stages: “commercial ripe” (CR; fruit commercially ripe with 90% green ground-color and 10% orange color) and “ripe on tree” (ROT; late fruit ripe on tree with 100% orange color and no green ground-color). Fruit was sanitized by immersion in 200 mg kg-1 sodium hypochlorite for 5 min, and stored at 8°C for 30 days. Color (L* and ΔΕ), visual appearance, crunchiness score, carotenoids, phenolic content and respiration rate were measured at harvest and after 7, 14, 21 and 30 days. The results did not show beneficial effects of 1-MCP in terms of color or visual or crunchiness score; in contrast, significant differences occurred in all samples in terms of carotenoid and polyphenol content.