Effect of Peroxyacetic Acid Treatments on Postharvest Physiology and Storage Quality of Chinese Chives

Peroxyacetic acid (PAA) is thought as a highly safe, efficient and cheap antimicrobial agent, but scarce researches have been reported on its application and physiological mechanism in the area of vegetable preservation. In this paper, the effects of PAA on some parameters of sensory, nutrient and physiology qualities were studied for postharvest Chinese Chives treated with water, 50, 150 and 300 mg.L-1 PAA in combination with 0.02mm polyethylene modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) at storage 2 C. The results showed that the treatment of PAA with a appropriate concentration from 50 to 150 mg.L-1 range decreased significantly the rates of respiration, rot and weight loss and MDA content of Chinese Chives in 15d period of storage and remained the relatively high contents of vitamin C and total chlorophyll at the late stage of storage, compared with the water and 300 mg.L-1 PAA treatments. Conclusively, a treatment with 150 mg.L(-1)PAA for 90s produced the optimum effects to delay the decline of quality and senescence process of postharvest Chinese Chives. This study provided a technique reference for the preservation and storage of postharvest Chinese Chives, and also probed some physiological mechanism of peroxyacetic acid.