Effects Of Bagging On Fruit Quality And Postharvest Physiology In ’Xuehua’ Pear

Bagging is an important measure to improve the appearance and edible quality of fruit.In this experiment,‘Xuehua’ pear was chosen to study the effect of bagged treatment onpericarp structure, phenolic substance, postharvest physiology and storage quality. The mainresults were as follow:1. It was observed that bagged fruit was smoother and less skin cracking than unbaggedfruit by using scanning electron microscope.2. The cuticles of bagged fruit became smoother and its thickness decreased. But thethickness of cuticles of unbagged fruit gradually increased, and they were higher than baggedfruit observably.3. The lignin area in pericarp of ‘Xuehua’ pear increased at first, then decreased. Theproportion of lignin area of bagged fruit was significantly less than unbagged fruit.4. Eight kinds of phenolics substance were detected in pericarp of ‘Xuehua’ pear. Theywere arbutin, chlorogenic acid, gallic acid, coumaric acid, rutin, quercetin, epicatechin andcatechin. The content of arbutin was the highest in all detected phenolic substance and up to3.51mg/g. The content of chlorogenic acid obtained0.88mg/g. The content of coumaric acid,rutin, catechin and epicatechin of bagged fruit were significantly lower than unbagged fruit,but the content of arbutin, chlorogenic acid, gallic acid, quercetin of bagged fruit had nosignificant differences compared with unbagged fruit.5. Compared with the unbagged fruit, the respiration rate and ethylene production rate ofbagged fruit were lower in the first28d of room temperature storage. In the rest of the storagetime, there was no difference between bagged fruit and unbagged fruit. The results showedthat bagged treatment was able to inhibit respiration rate and ethylene production rate of fruitin the beginning of storage.6. During low temperature storage, there was no difference between bagged fruit andunbagged fruit on fresh hardness, soluble solid content. Then they slightly declined. Therewas a significant drop on titratable acids and vitamin C during low temperature storage. Both of them in bagged treatment were lower than unbagged fruit. These results implied that thedecomposition rate of titratable acids and vitamin C increased by bagging.