Study on the changes of the microstructure and organic elements of litchi pericarp during storage

“Black leaf”and“China red”litchi were used as materials to study the changes of pericarp structure and organic elements( C,H,O,N,S) during normal temperature and cold storage period. The results showed that the two kinds of Lychee browning completely after 10 days when stored in normal temperature conditions,while under the cold temperature the time can be extended to about 30 d.Scanning electron microscope( SEM) images showed that pericarp structure changed obviously in the process of normal temperature storage,with the surface structure transformed from full and intensive semi-sphericalstructure into honeycomb-like structure and the cross section structure arranged disorderly.The analysis of organic element revealed that the C content was higher in the“Black leaf”litchi pericarp than that in the “China red”litchi pericarp,while that of O was lower and N,H and S had no obvious difference.During normal temperature storage,the O and H content changed a little,C and S content were decreased and N content was increased slightly.Compared withthe storage in normal temperature condition,there was an obvious increasing for O content and relatively stable content for other four elements under cold storage condition.