A donor that releases nitric oxide, hydrogen sulfide and aspirin, promising tools to enhance phytochemical content of strawberry

Strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Duch.) is one of the most popular fruit due to its superior taste and its health-promoting properties. At the same time, it is a highly perishable crop with limited market life. 

The working hypothesis of our experimental approach was to dissect the efficacy of an array of molecules with potential ‗priming‘ effect on postharvest performance and antioxidant potential of strawberry fruits after 4,8 and 12 days of cold storage (4°C, 90% R.H.) and additional maintenance at room temperature for 1 day. 

Strawberry fruits (cv. ‗Savana‘) of uniform size and ripening stage (commercial ripeness >80% of the surface red color), were hand-harvested and immediately transferred to the laboratory. After removal of defective fruits, they were separated to 24 lots of 60 fruits each. 

Each three lots were subjected to immersion with the following postharvest treatments: 

1. control (untreated), 
2. hydro-primed, 
3. NOSH-A, 
4. chitosan (CTS), 
5. CTS-NOSH-A, 
6. sodium alginate (Alg), 
7. alginateNOSH-A and 
8. CTS-Alg-NOSH-A. 

NOSH-A (patent WO/2015/123273) acts as a donor that releases nitric oxide (NO), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), and aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) concurrently. Chitosan is a biobased, biologically safe and biodegradable polymer that has been exploited as a nanocarrier to deliver efficiently an array of compounds, while alginate (sodium-based in our case) is another biodegradable polymer applied in nano smart delivery systems. 

Quality attributes (fresh fruit weight, volume, color, flesh firmness, soluble solids content (SSC) and titratable acidity (TA)) were determined, without however any striking differences among treatments. 

Interestingly, a notable increase in an array of phytochemical compounds were monitored in fruits treated with NOSH-A such as ellagic acid, pelargonidin-3-glucoside, pelargonidin-3-rutinoside, catechin. 

Notably the increment in such compounds was more pronounced after 8 days cold storage with a consequential decrease after 12 days of cold storage.


Picture, Egli Georgiadou during the presentation of the paper in the European Horticulture Congress

Source

NOSH-A, a donor that releases nitric oxide (NO), hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and aspirin, as a promising tool to enhance phytochemical content of strawberry fruits

George Manganaris1, Egli Georgiadou2, Anna Maria Taliadorou2, Vassilis Fotopoulos2, Carlos Javier Garcia Hernandez3, Fransisco Tomas-Barberan3, Maria Isabel Gil3
1 Anexartisias 57, PAREAS Building, P.O. Box 50329, 3603 Lemesos, Cyprus
2 Cyprus University of Technology, 3603, 3603 LEMESOS, Cyprus
3 CEBAS-CSIC, Murcia, Spain
*Correspondence: george.manganaris@cut.ac.cy

EHC, European Horticulture Congress, May 12 - 16, 2024, https://ehc.usamv.ro/, Symposium 10.

Symposium 10 book of summaries, https://ehc.usamv.ro/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/S10-Book-of-Abstracts.pdf