Postharvest Application of Boric Acid on Grape to Improve Shelf-Life and Maintain the Quality

Boric acid (BA) is commercially acceptable and economically feasible material to enhance shelf- life of pear, orange and other horticultural plants. Here, we investigated the effect of BA on the shelf-life and postharvest quality of table grape (cv. ‘Kyoho’). Grape berries were immersed in BA solution with different concentrations (0.00 [as control], 0.01, 0.03, 0.05 M) for 10 min and stored at room temperature for 10 days. Compared with the control, BA treatment groups maintained higher berry firmness by inhibiting the activity of polygalacturonase (PG) and cellulase, although not all indexes and treatments had advantages after BA treatment. At the same time, BA treated grapes maintained higher antioxidant enzyme activities such as catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and lower metabolic toxic products like superoxide anion ( [[EQUATION]] ) production rate, malondialdehyde (MDA) and hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) content than control. The experiment results showed that postharvest application of BA effectively delay the senescence of grapes compared with the control, and 0.01 M BA treatment had the most obvious effect.