Pre and postharvest treatments of methyl jasmonate: Maintain quality and shelf-life of Kinnow mandarin fruit during cold storage

Kinnow mandarin fruit were subjected to pre and postharvest treatment with four concentrations (0.1, 0.3, 0.5 and 0.7 mM) of methyl jasmonate (MeJA). Treated fruits were stored at 6 °C and 85–95% relative humidity for 40 days (d). Comparatively, pre-harvest application, retained higher moisture content, fruit firmness and TSS/acidity ratio over the after harvest treated fruits on 40 days of storage. Moreover, preharvest harvest application of MeJa (0.5 mM) maintained 2.01-fold higher flavonoids and 1.40-fold higher Vitamin C over the control. An increase in total phenolic content, antioxidant activity and peroxidase enzyme activity were reported in pre-harvest treated fruit over postharvest treatment and control at the end of storage. The principal components analysis has also shown comparatively better response of pre-harvest MeJA application to most of the postharvest desirable fruit traits over postharvest treatments. From this study, it is concluded that pre-harvest MeJA (0.5 mM) application -40 days before harvesting is more effective over postharvest aqueous application.