Appropriate stored temperature to maintain quality of fresh figs fruits

Abstract: Ficuscarica L., which matures from June to August with thin peel and seedless, sweet crisp flesh, has preferable nutrition and edible value. The edible part of fig is up to 97%, so it is favored by consumers especially the elderly and children. Fig fruit not only has a high nutrition, but also has obvious health care effect. Figs contain much carrot element, vitamin A and C, and the content of carotene is up to 70 mg/100 g. Its vitamin C content is 20 mg/100 g which is 8 times that of peach, 20 times that of grape and 27 times that of pear, and is the highest in all kinds of fruits. Figs contain a lot of pectin which can adsorb a variety of chemical substances, clean the intestinal tract, promote the proliferation of beneficial fungi and inhibit the rise of blood sugar, so if you eat a lot of fig you can maintain normal cholesterol content. It can cure cancer and slow aging. Fig is hailed as the "cancer warrior" and "the 21st century human health patron saint". With people treasuring the nutrition value in fresh fig fruit, its consumption has increased gradually, and the market foreground is vast. But fig fruit is coupled with thin skin and juicy, which is inclined to lose water and rot with vitamin C loss, and the nutrition quality is cut down, so it cannot be sold in the distant place. Fig fruit can be stored for 2-3 d at room temperature. At present, the fresh-keeping problem for fig fruit has not been resolved, which affects the development of fig fruit industry greatly, so it is important to study its storage and preservation technology, which will provide the theoretical and practical technic for the business storage of fig fruit. In this paper, changes in quality, physiology properties under storage and mature senescence mechanism of the fig were studied. Dealing with different temperature not only solves the problem of its storage and transport, but also saves the nutrition so that fig can be enjoyed all year round. In order to determine the suitable storage temperature of the postharvest fig, the effects of temperatures (-1, 0 and 2℃) on physiology and storage quality of postharvest fig fruits were investigated. The results showed that the fruit firmness, titratable acid, soluble solid and vitamin C content at -1℃ were obviously higher (P<0.05) than 0 and 2℃. Moreover, -1℃ treatment significantly (P<0.01) decreased rotting rate, inhibited respiration rate, reduced the permeability of cell membrane and malondialdehyde (MDA) content, meanwhile, maintained the activities of peroxidase (POD) and catalase (CAT), compared with 0 and 2℃. It was suggested that treatment with -1℃ could extend the storage life of fig fruits by 25-27 d compared with storage at room temperature. This paper can provide theoretical basis for fig preservation technology.