Preservative Effect of Cold Storage Combined with Melatonin Treatment on Fresh-Eating Figs

Yuan Xiao; Deng Xin; Wang Bin

doi:10.14083/j.issn.1001-4942.2026.03.009

Abstract：Fresh-eating figs are soft and have a short shelf life,which makes postharvest preservation challenging.To extend shelf life of figs,this study used the fig variety'Fengchan Huang'as material,and the preservative effects of various cold temperatures(0,5 and 10 ℃)were compared to determine the optimal storage temperature for fresh-eating figs.Based on this,the effects of different concentrations of melatonin(MT)treatments(0.05,0.10 and 0.50 mmol/L)in combination with cold storage on the quality of fresh-eat-ing figs were also examined.The results indicated that compared to stored at 0 ℃ and 10 ℃,the figs stored at 5 ℃ exhibited the lowest decay index,decay rate and browning,and delayed the decline in fruit firmness and contents of total soluble solid(TSS)and titratable acidity(TA),confirming that 5 ℃ was the optimal storage temperature for'Fengchan Huang'figs.In comparison to the control stored at 5 ℃,the 0.10 mmol/L MT treatment under this temperature significantly reduced the decay rate and browning of figs,and also delayed the loss of texture,TSS and TA contents.Furthermore,the 0.10 mmol/L MT treatment notably enhanced the activities of peroxidase,catalase and ascorbate peroxidase,which suggested that MT treatment mitigated oxida-tive damages during figs storage by enhancing antioxidant enzyme activity,thereby extending the shelf life.In conclusion,appropriate concentration of MT treatment combined with cold storage could effectively maintain the quality of fresh-eating figs and prolong their shelf life,and the effect of 0.10 mmol/L MT combined with 5℃ storage was the best in this study.This conclusion could provide the theoretical basis and technical support for storage and preservation of fresh-eating figs.