During the past 20 years, the use of synthetic fungicides in postharvest treatments has been considerably reduced, increasing the interest in controlling postharvest diseases by alternative approaches. Among these, plant bioactive compounds could be promising, fitting well with the concept of sustainable agriculture and safety for human diet. Plants produce a wide array of secondary metabolites important for their interaction with the environment; many of them are associated with the defence system and can function as fungal inhibitors. These compounds can be constitutive and occur in healthy plants in their active forms or, as inactive precursors, they are activated in response to pathogen or tissue damage. Flavour compounds (trans-2-hexenal, carvacrol, citral, trans-cinnamaldehyde), essential oils, isothiocyanates, jasmonates and plant extracts have been shown to control the main postharvest fungal diseases on different fruits and vegetables. Besides the chemical characteristics of each compound, some factors influence their effectiveness, including treatment conditions such as form of application (liquid or vapour), concentration, temperature, exposure time, time of treatment, formulation. The different responses found in many studies indicate a cultivar specificity in the product-pathogen-compound interaction, to the point that a limit to the use of plant bioactive compounds may not be their efficacy, but rather the off-odours caused in fruits and/or phytotoxicity. The jasmonates, endogenous phytohormones, could exceed this limit by inducing a defence response and increasing fruit resistance; however, the efficacy of jasmonates has to be enhanced by integrated control strategy, using for example biocontrol agents. There are still very few studies on the effect of plant bioactive compound treatment on sensory quality, and more investigations are required to avoid detrimental effects on the texture and flavour of fruits, since the absence of any harmful effects on fruit quality is required in order to achieve a practical application of this novel control means.
Fruit Postharvest Disease Control by Plant Bioactive Compounds
MARI, MARTA;NERI, FIORELLA;BERTOLINI, PAOLO
2011
Abstract
During the past 20 years, the use of synthetic fungicides in postharvest treatments has been considerably reduced, increasing the interest in controlling postharvest diseases by alternative approaches. Among these, plant bioactive compounds could be promising, fitting well with the concept of sustainable agriculture and safety for human diet. Plants produce a wide array of secondary metabolites important for their interaction with the environment; many of them are associated with the defence system and can function as fungal inhibitors. These compounds can be constitutive and occur in healthy plants in their active forms or, as inactive precursors, they are activated in response to pathogen or tissue damage. Flavour compounds (trans-2-hexenal, carvacrol, citral, trans-cinnamaldehyde), essential oils, isothiocyanates, jasmonates and plant extracts have been shown to control the main postharvest fungal diseases on different fruits and vegetables. Besides the chemical characteristics of each compound, some factors influence their effectiveness, including treatment conditions such as form of application (liquid or vapour), concentration, temperature, exposure time, time of treatment, formulation. The different responses found in many studies indicate a cultivar specificity in the product-pathogen-compound interaction, to the point that a limit to the use of plant bioactive compounds may not be their efficacy, but rather the off-odours caused in fruits and/or phytotoxicity. The jasmonates, endogenous phytohormones, could exceed this limit by inducing a defence response and increasing fruit resistance; however, the efficacy of jasmonates has to be enhanced by integrated control strategy, using for example biocontrol agents. There are still very few studies on the effect of plant bioactive compound treatment on sensory quality, and more investigations are required to avoid detrimental effects on the texture and flavour of fruits, since the absence of any harmful effects on fruit quality is required in order to achieve a practical application of this novel control means.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
