Effect of hot water and ethanol treatments on postharvest rot and quality of fresh wolfberry fruit

Fresh wolfberry (cv·Ningqi No·1) were used as materials to study the effect of hot water and ethanol treatments on postharvest rot and quality of fruit during low temperature storage. Results indicated that hot water and ethanol individually or combined treatments decreased effectively rot rate, hot water showed the best and ethanol ranged the second, the rot rates were 50.5% and 66.7% lower than the control after 28 days of the storage. Hot water individually and hot water combined with ethanol also decreased the weight loss, were 64.6% and 53.2% lower than the control after 28 days of the storage. However, weight loss of fruit treated with ethanol individually was higher than the control. The hot water and ethanol individually or combined treatments noticeably maintained the content of soluble solids, titratable acid and ascorbic acid, and the color and luster, floavor, juice, color of peduncle and rind of fruit. Hot water individually and hot water combined with ethanol improved the tast, however, ethanol treatment decreased the taste of fruit.