Effects of 2, 6-dichloroisonicotinic acid treatments on postharvest quality of mango fruits

The objective of this work was to evaluate effects of 2,6-dichloroisonicotinic acid (INA) on the quality of harvested mango fruit (Mangifera indica L. cv. ‘Zihua’). Mango fruits were dipped into 20, 100 mg/L INA solution and water (control) under vacuum infiltration for two minutes at a low pressure of 0.08 MPa and for additional ten minutes at air pressure, and then dried in the air and stored at 13℃, with relative humidity of 85%～95%. Fruits treated with 20 and 100 mg/L INA solution maintained higher firmness and ascorbic acid content than those of the control fruits. At the same time, INA solution treatment delayed the colour change of mango fruit peel. The decay incidence and decay severity of fruits were effectively reduced by INA treatments. However, INA treatments had little influence on total soluble solids content and titratable acid level during the storage of mango fruits. These results suggested that INA treatments had the beneficial effect on improving postharvest quality and delaying ripening in the storage of mango fruits.