Phytochemical Changes in Root Vegetables during Postharvest Storage

Root vegetables contain phytochemicals that are essential for human nutrition, in addition to offering desirable health benefits such as anti-oxidative, anti-cancer, and immunomodulatory activities. The quantity and stability of these phytochemicals vary greatly among root vegetable cultivars and landraces. Besides, freshly harvested root vegetables deteriorate rapidly thus causing significant losses in their quality attributes. To minimize these losses, various postharvest technologies have been assessed and shown efficacy in prolonging the shelf-life of stored vegetables. However, postharvest technologies may contribute to deterioration of nutrients and/or accumulation of toxic compounds such as glycoalkaloids. Therefore, this chapter summarizes information that has been reported on the influence of varied pre-storage treatments and storage systems on the quality of root vegetables. Quality attributes that are highlighted include changes in: root vegetable morphology such as sprouting, dehydration, and greening; phytochemical content of phenolics, flavonoids, glycoalkaloids, alkaloids, glycosides, and terpenoids; and nutritional content of carbohydrates, protein, vitamins, and carotenoids.