Effect of Cold Plasma Treatment on Alleviating Chilling Injury of Banana Fruit after Harvest

Effect of cold plasma treatment(CPT)and CPT plus humidity(RH 90%)on alleviating chilling injury of banana fruits was investigated. A dielectric barrier discharge(DBD,20 kV,5 kHz)plasma was used to treat with gas cycling in the bananas storage space at low temperature(6℃)for 1 min every 24 h. The index of cold damage,weight loss rate,soluble solid content,hardness,ethylene content,CO₂ content were determined by regular sampling. The results showed that,compared with the control,chilling injury and weight loss were relieved in CPT groups. CPT significantly(P<0.01)removed the ethylene and reduced the concentration of CO₂ in the environment of storage,consequently compared with the control,postponed the ripening progress of banana due to the stimulation of low temperature,and enhanced its capability to endure hazardous low temperature. CPT+RH demonstrated better effect on maintaining the appearance and quality of banana fruit. For CPT+RH,the chilling injury degree was lighter compared with the control on the 12th day and the weight loss rate declined by 49.53%(P<0.01).CPT+RH well kept the firmness of pericarp. However,both CPT and CPT+RH treatments did not create obvious influence on banana pulp firmness and the variation of soluble solids content. The results of this work implied that cold plasma treatment could be employed as a novel technique to relieve the chilling injury of banana and similar tropical fruits in the future.