The respiration and ethylene production rate on different fruit stages and cultivars of Indian jujube (Ziziphus mauritiana Lam.)

Indian jujube (Ziziphus mauritiana Lam.) is an important fruit in Taiwan and grows famous in foreign market.
This research used five commercial Indian jujube cultivars: ‘Xue Mi’, ‘Tainung No. 9’ (TN9), ‘Tainung No. 13’ (TN13), ‘Kaohsiung No. 10’ (KH10), ‘Kaohsiung No. 11’ (KH11) to investigate the respiration rate and the ethylene production rate of fruits harvested at different maturing stages to understand their physiological development during maturation.
The results showed under 25°C environment, each cultivar had a similar respiration rate pattern that gradually decreased as the fruits kept maturing since 9 weeks after pollination (WAP), but differed at 15 WAP. Each cultivar performed relatively stable ethylene production rate since 9 to 13 WAP, but that of TN9 increased significantly compared to others, while that of KH11 almost stayed constant at 15 WAP. Under 10°C storage environment, the respiration rate and ethylene production rate of each cultivar significantly decreased.
The suppression effect was the strongest for fruits at 15 WAP; however, TN9 still has a higher rate (2.13 mL CO₂ kg^‑1 h^‑1) than others as it was under 25°C environment.
Ethylene production rate of all cultivars decreased below 2 μL kg^‑1 h^‑1 at every maturing stage and the difference between each other is relatively subtle.
It implies different Indian jujube cultivars have various postharvest respiration pattern during the fruit maturing so that the specific post-harvest treatments.
Also, it indicates Indian jujube can be altered to be more non-climacteric by breeding.

IV Asian Horticultural Congress – AHC2023

H.L. Chen, J.H. Kuo

fruit development, storage, postharvest, fruit breeding, climacteric

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2024.1404.14