orang khademi

The influence of storing almond kernel genotypes derived from reciprocal crosses of ‘Mamaei’ and ‘Marcona’ cultivars (referred to as ‘G1’, ‘G2’, ‘G3’, ‘G4’, ‘G5’ and ‘G6’) on diverse quality parameters, encompassing moisture, ash, protein, oil, carbohydrates, fiber, and total vitamin E was investigated. The kernels were stored for 0, 6, and 12 months at room temperature. The results showed that the highest fresh kernel weight was observed in the ‘Marcona’ parent and two progenies, ‘G5’ and ‘G3’, at harvest time. The highest amounts of soluble carbohydrates were found in the ‘G4’ genotype, while the highest amounts of insoluble carbohydrates were observed in the ‘Mamaei’ parent and ‘G5’ genotype. The highest protein content was found in the ‘Mamaei’ parent and ‘G4’ genotype, while the maximum oil content was observed in the ‘G5’ genotype. The ‘G6’ genotype had the highest amount of total vitamin E. All studied traits showed a decreasing trend during the storage period, with the lowest amounts observed in all selected offspring after one year of storage. The results highlighted variations in traits such as fresh kernel weight, soluble and insoluble carbohydrates, protein, oil, and total vitamin E among different genotypes. Moreover, all traits exhibited a decline in values during storage, emphasizing the importance of selecting high-quality genotypes like ‘G5’ for almond breeding programs.

One of the most important subtropical fruits in Iran is Japanese persimmon. Persimmon is a climacteric fruit and continues to ripening after the harvest. One of the main quality components in persimmon fruit is its appearance due to the presence of different carotenoid pigments. Persimmon has also high antioxidant capacity. The use of LED lights is one of the most important commercial techniques to increase the quality and postharvest life of the fruits. In the present study, the effect of LED lights on the coloring and antioxidant capacity of persimmon fruit was studied.

The Karaj genotype of persimmon was harvested at commercial stage and exposed to white and red LED lights (at intensity of 40-60 candle/W) up to 21 days at 10°C and 80% RH, as the control fruit was stored at dark conditions.

The results showed that the samples of red LED light had higher color index and lower hue° and L * values as compared to control or white LED light samples. Therefore, the red light induced the coloring in persimmon fruit, but the white light did not show such an effect. Also, both white and red LED lights have resulted in better preservation and increased antioxidant capacity in persimmon fruit as compared to control.

Research limitations:

 No limitations were encountered.

Originality/Value: 

based on the results of this experiment, LED lights are effective treatments in maintaining and increasing the quality of Japanese persimmon at the postharvest stage, and have potential to further investigation and commercialization.

Gaining knowledge about the genetic diversity is essential in terms of plant breeding and germplasm conservation. In this study, the genetic diversity of some persimmons was evaluated using pomological traits.

28 genotypes belonging to D. lotus and D. kaki species were evaluated from different regions of Iran. Nineteen fruit and seed traits were recorded for 15 fruits per genotype.

Pomological characteristics showed high variations among the studied genotypes. Generally, the coefficient of variation in seed traits was higher than that in fruit traits. All of the D. lotus and some D. kaki genotypes were seeded, while the rest of D. kaki genotypes were seedless. Fruit weight ranged from 4.45–251.77g, and the most fruit weight was recorded in KBM1 genotype, also the biggest seeds and the most fruit length was detected in this genotype. The results indicated that a significant and positive correlation there was between fruit weight and length with seed dimensions. Various fruit shape was detected among the genotypes, but most of them were round-shaped. The genotypes ranged from strongly-astringent to completely non-astringent types. Cluster and principle component analysis showed that all the genotypes can be divided into three main groups, and some of the groups can be divided into distinct sub-groups. In PCA, first two components explained about 60.97% of total achieved variability.

Research limitations:

 No limitations were encountered.

Originality/Value: 

This study indicated that Diospyros germplasm resources in Iran are of noticeable diversities and can be promising for the utilization in the breeding programs.

In order to evaluate the quality and quantity of some important commercial Iranian pomegranate cultivars, in the climatic conditions of Yazd, the fruits of 12 cultivars including: Ardestani Mahvalat, Bejestani, Shishekap Ferdows, Naderi Badroud, Qajaq Qom, Gel Tafti, Shirin Shahvar, Robab Neyriz, Malase Yazdi, Malase Saveh, Malase Yousefkhani and Khazar Bardaskan were harvested at commercial maturity stage and were evaluated for important quantitative and qualitative traits. The results showed, there were significant differences among the cultivars in terms of fruit weight, skin and aril color properties (CIE L *, a *, b * and Hugh angle), soluble solids content, titratable acidity, antioxidant activity and anthocyanin content. Meanwhile, the highest fruit weight was measured in Shirin Shahvar cultivar, this cultivar also had the lowest titratable acidity and the highest taste index among the cultivars, and also this cultivar showed a bright color, however, the brightest color among the cultivars was observed in Naderi Badroud. Based on the skin and aril color properties, anthocyanin content and fruit taste, Malase Yazdi was the best among the cultivars. However, cultivars such as Shishekap Ferdows, also showed good quality characteristics. Also the correlations between traits was investigated and significant relationships were observed between color properties and amount of anthocyanin or between antioxidant capacity and amount of phenol or amount of anthocyanin.

Chilling injury (CI) is one of the main factors involved in reducing pomegranate quality during cold storage. In the present study, the interaction between 1-MCP and three different coatings (cellophane, confectionery waxy paper and 1%, 2% sodium alginate) on maintenance of postharvest quality of pomegranate fruits were investigated during 120 days of cold storage .The results showed that uncoated fruits had higher weight loss and total soluble solids (TSS) than coated fruits during storage. The results also showed that untreated (control) fruits showed higher weight loss, decay and total soluble solids (TSS) than 1-MCP treated fruits during cold storage. Cellophane had a significant effect on delaying ion leakage and preventing weight loss of pomegranate fruit.The 1-MCP+cellophane and 1-MCP+confectionery wax paper could reduce chilling injury by delaying the reduction of bioactive compounds such as total phenolics and antioxidant activity. The lowest decay severity was also observed in fruits treated with 1-MCP. In general, it can be concluded that postharvest application of 1-MCP+cellophane was the most effective treatment to induce chilling tolerance and extend the storage life of pomegranate.

In recent years, the use of natural and healthy compounds has been considered as a new method to control chilling and maintain postharvest quality of horticultural products. In this study, for the first time, pomegranate fruits were immersed in L-arginine solution at concentrations of 0, 1 and 2 mM and Its effects on the quality of pomegranate fruits ‘Malas-e-Saveh’ grown in Sari region was evaluated during 120 days in cold storage. Based on the obtained results, the treatment significantly increased the total phenol and antioxidant properties of the fruit compared to the control. Fruits treated with 1 mM L-arginine showed more antioxidant activity compared to the control. Moreover, the activity of antioxidant enzymes (CAT, SOD, APX) as well as PAL enzyme increased accordingly. Whereas, H2O2 accumulation and PPO enzyme activity in fruits treated with 1 mM L-arginine were significantly reduced. Based on our results, L-arginine treatment can be used as a useful and practical method to maintain nutritional quality and increase the pomegranate storability due to its safety and effectiveness.

In order to investigate the effect of Hana extract and sodium nitroprusside on antioxidant properties and vase life of chrysanthemum, an experiment as factorial in a completely randomized design with three replications was conducted. The first factor was Hana leaf extract at three levels (0, 100 and 200 ppm), the second factor was sodium nitroprusside at three levels (0, 0.5 and 1 mM) and the third factor was sampling time at three levels (1, 6 and 12 day). The results showed that with increasing sampling time, flower diameter, chlorophyll content, relative water content and relative fresh weight decreased and the activity of antioxidant enzymes increased significantly. The extract of hana and sodium nitroprusside at high concentrations reduced the activity of antioxidant enzymes and improved chrysanthemum quality parameters, indicating their positive effects on the elimination of free radicals. The Hana extract treatment on sixth day of sampling time was the best treatment for improving the parameters of chrysanthemum flower. The Hana leaf extract and sodium nitroprusside treatments suppressed reduction of chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and total chlorophyll leaf content. The results of this study showed that hana extract and sodium nitroprusside had positive effect on vase life of chrysanthemum cut flower.

Button mushroom has short postharvest life due to high respiration rate, fast browning and high transpiration rate. Calcium is regarded as a suitable material in order to preserve the quality and increase the postharvest life of button mushroom, but, in the research conducted on the edible mushrooms, usually calcium chloride has been used as a calcium source. However, calcium chloride is of a negative effect on the taste of products and finding a suitable alternative is highly significant. In this study, the impact of other calcium sources has been studied in relation to the increased shelf-life of button mushroom in comparison to calcium chloride.

Mushrooms were treated in calcium chloride, calcium lactate and calcium nitrate (Ca concentration equivalent to 0.5% calcium chloride) for 5 min and then were dried at room temperature and packed in polyethylene containers using cellophane film. The packed mushrooms were stored at 4°C and estimated during the cold storage up to the 14 days.

Results indicated that all three calcium treatments led to the reduction of browning in mushrooms by reducing polyphenol oxidase enzyme activity as compared to the control, and also, treated mushrooms had higher firmness value and calcium content but lower phenol content. In addition, desired indices, the calcium lactate treatment was better than two other treatments in maintaining mushrooms quality during the cold storage.

 No limitations were encountered.

 calcium lactate can be an appropriate alternative for calcium chloride treatment in terms of increased shelf-life of button mushrooms.

In the current study, for reducing of fruit cracking and improvement of quantity and quality of pomegranate fruit cv. ‘Malase Saveh’, gibberellic acid (0, 30 and 60 mg/l) and zinc sulfate (0, 1500 and 3000 mg/l) treatments were utilized as a factorial experiment based on randomized complete block design with three replications. Gibberellic acid and zinc sulfate was sprayed in three stages of fruit developmet in the late of spring and midsummer. The fruit and leaf samples were harvested randomly from various parts of the pomegranate trees at fruit ripening and some morpho-physiological characteristics of fruit and leaf were measured. The results showed that the spraying of gibberellic acid alone or in combination with zinc element significantly reduced the fruit cracking percentage compared to the control. The lowest level of fruit cracking was related to gibberellic acid treatments with levels of 60 and 30 mg/l and 3000 mg/l zinc element with mean values of 7.73 and 7.80%, respectively. The highest amount of fruit cracking was observed in control samples (30 %). The fruit weight, length and diameter, moisture percentage and thickness of fruit peel, TSS, zinc element and ascorbic acid concentrations significantly were increased with application of 60 and 30 mg/l gibberellic acid, and 3000 mg/l zinc sulfate compared with the control samples. In general, the results showed that spraying of pomegranate trees with gibberellic acid and zinc sulfate can improved some morpho-physiological characteristics of the fruit, which are effective in controlling of fruit cracking and increasing the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of pomegranate fruit.

Strawberry is one of the most important temperate zone crops, which is very sensitive to salt stress. Because of salinization of soil and water resources, today the main purpose in strawberry production is to overcome the adverse effects of salinity stress. In order to reduce the adverse effects of salinity on ‘camarosa’ strawberry salicylic acid and nano-salicylic and salinity stress on Camarosa strawberry fruit, a study was carried out as a RCBD design with four replications under hydroponic condition. NaCl salinity was applied at three concentrations (0, 25 and 50 mM) and treatments were applied at three levels, including control (water), SA at 1mM and nano-SA at 1mM. Results showed that, NaCl treatments reduced growth indices, including shoot length, shoot fresh weight, root fresh weight and chlorophyll content, as well as fruit qualitative and quantitative indices, including yield, fruit weight, antioxidant capacity and titratable acidity. However, the anthocyanin and Na content in the fruits were increased with NaCl treatments. SA and nano-SA treatments ameliorated the adverse effects of salinity stress and reduced Na accumulation rate in the fruit. Nano-SA was more effective than SA in reducing salinity effects on strawberry fruit.

In order to improve yield and quality of sweet pepper cv. ‘California Wonder’ in Ilam province, effects of gibberellins (GA3 50 mg/l) or calcium (CaCl2 0.5 percent) spray at beginning or the end of harvesting season (70 and 120 days after transplanting, respectively) were evaluated. Either of the chemicals were sprayed two or three times per growth stage through a factorial assay on the basis of a randomized complete block design (RCBD). Results showed that gibberellic acid and calcium spray increased average yield in plant, weight, length, diameter, volume, texture stiffness, flesh thickness, dry weight, ascorbic acid content, antioxidant activity, chlorophyll a, b and total chlorophyll, as well as calcium content of fruits in both growth stages. Gibberellins with three sprays per growth stages performed the highest positive role in improvement of physical properties of fruits. Effect of gibberellins and calcium on all evaluated traits, except fruit density, were significantly higher at the late harvesting stage than early stages. Therefore, gibberellic acid and calcium spray especially at the end of harvesting season may be advised to improve yield and quality of sweet pepper.

Salinity is one of the most important plant growth limiting factors, which using the anti-stress materials is considered as an important approach in moderating its effects on plants. In this research, the date plum seedlings response to salinity stress and two compounds putrescine and chitosan to reduce salinity stress was studied. The experiment was conducted as a factorial with three levels of sodium chloride (0, 30 and 60 mM), and five treatments of control, putrescine (1 and 2 mM) and chitosan (0.25 and 0.5 %), based on a completely randomized design with four replications at Shahed university in 2016. The results showed that date plum was sensitive to salt stress in the early stages of growth and sodium chloride salinity stress resulted in significant decrease in vegetative traits such as fresh matter weight and length of shoots and roots as well as leaf chlorophyll content in compared to 0 salinity. In addition, the leaf blight percentage, sodium content, electrolyte leakage and malondialdehyde content were increased in plants treated with salinity. Putrescine treatment, especially at 2 mM concentration effectively reduced the effects of salinity on date plum seedlings and improved vegetative growth of stem and root, while chitosan had no significant effect in reducing the harmful effects induced by salt stress in this experiment. According to the results, Diospyros lotus seedlings were sensitive to salinity and using treatments such as putrescine is effective in increasing its resistance to salinity stress.

The carob moth, Ectomyelois ceratoniae (Zeller) and various diseases are the main limiting factors in postharvest life of pomegranate fruit. Including effective treatment to reduce pests and diseases of agricultural crops is gamma radiation. The effect of this treatment in reducing postharvest pests and diseases of pomegranate fruit has been also shown; however, its effect on fruit quality during cold storage has not been investigated. In order to study the effect of gamma irradiation on pomegranate quality this study, as factorial in frame of CRD, was conducted at Shahed University and Nuclear Agriculture Research School in 2015. For that pomegranate fruits cv. ‘Malas Saveh’ were harvested at maturity stage and treated with gamma radiation at doses of 0, 1, 3, 5 and 7 kGy and were stored at 6°C with 80% RH, and then were taken on 1, 2 and 3 months of storage. Results showed that application of gamma radiation in comparison to control increased weight loss and electrolyte leakage, and reduced soluble solid, total phenol, anthocyanin and vitamin C contents as well as antioxidant capacity. Nevertheless the effects of treatments at low doses, especially at 1 kGy, were not considerable, but fruit quality decreased more with increasing doses. Therefore low doses of this treatment can be effectively use in increasing postharvest life of pomegranate fruit.

Bell pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) from Solanaceae family is one of the most important vegetables which are fruit pods on the capsicum plant grown for their sweet fruits and delicate peppery flavor they extend to the recipes. Sweet pepper contains an impressive list of plant nutrients that found to have disease preventing and health promoting properties. Unlike in other fellow chili peppers, it has very less calories and fats. 100 g provides just 31 calories. Because of their versatility, low calories, intense flavor and high concentration of vitamins, sweet peppers are a great snack raw and an easy addition to many different recipes.In recent years extending shelf-life of this perishable vegetable has been accomplished (Banaras et al., 2005). The losses in vegetable quality and quantity between harvest and consumption affect the crop productivity. It is estimated that the magnitude of the postharvest losses of fresh horticultural crops is from 5 to 25% in developed countries and of 20 to 50% in developing countries. Fresh peppers are often eaten raw and supplied pre-cut to manufacturers as ready-to-use ingredients. However, the main problems limiting their shelf life occur by shriveling, decay development on the cut surface, as well as degreening of the vegetable among different degraded quality characteristics (Sakaldas and Kaynas, 2010). Those problems are correlated to an undesirable loss of water during metabolism or diffusion through the skin and respiration. Temperature management is the most effective tool for extending the shelf life of fresh horticultural commodities. Nowadays, to reduce high losses and keeping product’s quality, in addition to lowering temperature, coating and packing must be noticed. Therefore, in this study, dipping in chitosan solution and coatings by edible Chitosan was assayed to improve quality of sweet peppers storability during cold storage.
Plant material and sample preparation: Green peppers obtained from a Research farm, College of Agriculture, Ilam University, Ilam, Iran were used in the present study. The fruits were sanitized with hyperchlorinated water (1 mL/L) and rinsed with tap water. Peppers were divided in random into different group for chitosan treatments. Treatments and storage condition: The green peppers were dipped for 2 min into a solution either 0% (control) or 1% (w/v) chitosan (Chitosan, 80-95% deacetylation degree, medium molecular weight). The coating solution was prepared by dispersing 0 and 10 g of chitosan powder into 1L of distilled water containing 1% (v/v) glacial acetic acid (Kyu Kyu Win et al., 2007) and final pH of the solution adjusted to pH 5.0. After being air dried for 2 hrs. at room Temperature, ten similar sizes fruits were placed in each plastic crate, tightly closed by cellophane films and stored at 10°C, 85-90% relative humidity to be later assessed for further analyses intended for 14 and 28 days. The control samples of ten untreated fruits per crate were kept unsealed under similar environmental conditions of temperature and relative humidity separately. The current study carried out as a factorial assay on the basis of a RCBD with three replications during 2013-2014 at Ilam University. The main factor was included of four treatments (control, Chitosan coating, Cellophane sealing and Chitosan coating Cellophane sealing) and the sub factor was included of storage period duration (14 and 28 days). Data were subjected to ANOVA using SAS software version 9.2. Verification of significant differences was done using Duncan's Test at 5% probability level.
Results showed that fruits quality declines with long storage, but treatments with Cellophane and Chitosan decreased weight loss and kept firmness, TSS, titratable acidity, sugar/acid ratio, ascorbic acid, antioxidant activity, total phenol, and catalase and peroxidase enzymes better than control. Furthermore, for most of the traits no significant difference was observed between treatments, although cellophane coating recorded more fungal infection and lower marketability. Shelf life enhancement by Chitosan has been already reported on carrot, orange and Japanese Medlar (Rashidi et al., 2009, Ahmad et al., 1989 & Ding et al., 2002) through its antimicrobial activity (Xing et al., 2011) and suppressing respiration by blocking stomata. It has been reported that both edible and nonedible coverage (such as chitosan and cellophane) of fruits can provide a modified atmosphere surround them which results in decreasing the rate of their maturity and senesces. Taking overall quality into consideration, the best treatment was joint application of cellophane and chitosan. That treatment appears to be an effective method for improving the postharvest quality of peppers which could more effectively preserved quality and biochemical characteristics. These fruits remained hydrated, green and had good visual appearance after storage. The low rate of respiration of these fruits may also account for the retention of pepper quality.

The postharvest life of bottom mushroom is limited due to bacterial attack and enzymatic browning. This study was carried out in order to increasing the storability of mushroom, by antibacterial and anti-browning components. For that, the mushrooms were treated by oxalic and citric acids at concentration of 1.5 and 2.5 mM, hydrogen peroxide at concentration of 1 and 2.5%, ascorbic acid at concentration of 1.5 mM and calcium chloride at concentration of 1% as dipping for 2 min, and then treated mushrooms were packed in cellophane and stored at 4°C. Weight loss, marketability, electro leakage (EL) and bacterial colony forming unit (CFU) were measured after 8 and 16 days. According to the results, calcium chloride, ascorbic acid and hydrogen peroxide controlled browning as compared to control. However, oxalic and citric acids, despite reducing microbial load, did not show any positive effects. Calcium chloride by reducing weight loss, reducing EL and reducing bacterial load, ascorbic acid by reducing EL and reducing bacterial load and peroxide hydrogen by reducing bacterial load tended to increase postharvest life of bottom mushroom.

Strawberry is sensitive to salt stress. In order to study the effects of putrescine treatments on reducing harmful effects of NaCl salt stress in strawberry, this experiment was conducted as factorial in frame of RCBD design at Shahed University in 2015. NaCl treatments were applied at 0, 25 and 50 mM through root in hydroponic medium on ‘Camarosa’ cultivar. Putrescine treatments were also applied at 0, 1.5 and 3 mM as foliage spray during growth period in 4 times at 15 days intervals. The results showed that, NaCl treatment especially at 50mM, reduced shoot length, shoot fresh and dry weight, root fresh and dry weight, leaf number, leaf chlorophyll content, fruit number, fruit fresh and dry weight, yield and titratable acidity, and increased anthocyanin and total soluble solid content. Salt stress had no effects on the root length. Application of 1.5 and 3 mM putrescines reduced harmful effects of salt stress, so that increased more mentioned characteristics under salt condition and reduced total soluble solid content. According to the results, putrescine, in both 1.5 and 3 mM, is good strategy for resolving the limitation of salt stress in strawberry production.

Short postharvest life and susceptibility to chilling are the most important problems of persimmon fruit cultivars. Use of nanotechnology is one of the most effective ways to extend storage life of fruits. In this study, effect of different packaging material including nano-silicate, polyethylene and control (without packaging) on quality and antioxidant properties of persimmon fruits cv. Karaj was investigated during 40 days of postharvest storage at 1 ºC and 90-95% relative humidity. The fruits were removed after 20 and 40 days of cold storage and subsequently held at ambient temperature for three days (shelf life), and were analyzed for chilling injury index, weight loss, flesh firmness, total soluble solids (TSS), titratable acidity (TA), ascorbic acid, soluble tannin, total flavonoids, total carotenoid contents and total antioxidant activity. The results showed that nano-packaging maintained quality attributes of ascorbic acid, soluble tannin, total flavonoids, total carotenoid contents and total antioxidant activity for longer period than polyethylene packaging and controls. Also, nano- packaged persimmon fruits had the least chilling index (0.01%), weight loss (1.32%) and the most flesh fruit firmness (5.33N/cm2). Therefore use of nano-packaging is beneficial for quality maintaining and postharvest life of persimmon fruit during storage.

There are two types of Japanese persimmon (Diospyros kaki Thunb.), astringent and non-astringent, based on the degree of astringent taste at maturity state. Fruits of either type are strongly astringent when small and immature, but non-astringent type loses its astringency during development on the tree, still with firm flesh. However, the astringent type keeps its astringency and is inedible even when fully colored. It loses its astringency when becomes over-ripe with extremely soft flesh. At this stage, the fruits are usually over ripe with poor quality. Astringency in persimmon is caused by soluble tannins present in the fruit flesh. One mechanism useful in artificial removal of astringency from persimmon fruit is condensation or polymerization of soluble tannins into insoluble non-astringent forms, by acetaldehyde, which is being produced in the fruit flesh during different treatments. Acetaldehyde accumulates in the fruit flesh during its exposure to ethanol vapor or high level of carbon dioxide (CO2) gas, Hence, constant temperature and short duration (CTSD) is the preferred method of CO2 treatment used to remove astringency of persimmon fruit. It involves holding the fruits in ≥95% carbon dioxide atmosphere for a short duration at constant temperature of 20-30°C then transferring to normal atmosphere. However using CO2 treatment as gas form is expensive and needs special equipment. However, solid CO2 (dry ice) is easily available in Iran with low price. It release CO2 gas and can be used for removing astringency in persimmon fruit. The response of persimmon to de-astringent treatment depends on the cultivar. In this study two persimmon cultivars namely: ”Karaj” and ”Japanese” were harvested at maturity (full coloring) stage and treated with dry ice and ethanol vapor to remove astringency and the quality of treated fruits were evaluated.
Astringent persimmon fruits cvs ‘Karaj’ and ‘Japanese’ were harvested at maturity stage and transported immediately to the Department of Horticulture Science, University of Shahed and treated with either ethanol or dry ice. Both ethanol and dry ice treatmenttreatments were applied in low-density polyethylene bags with 0.05 mm thickness and polyethylene container with 3 mm thickness. In the polyethylene container, dry ice was applied at amounts of 3, 5 and 7% per kilograms of fruit and in the polyethylene bags dry ice was applied at amount of 0.16, 0.25 and 0.33 per kilogerams of fruits. For ethanol treatment, in both polyethylene bag and polyethylene container, 10 ml of 36% ethanol per kilogram of fruit was sprayed. Thereafter, bags and containers were sealed completely and kept for 48 hours at 25°C and 80% RH. After removing from the closed bags and containers, fruits were held in air at 25°C, 80% RH for completing astringency removing. After astringency removal treatmenttreatments, soluble tannin contents, astringent taste degree, fruit firmness, total soluble solid and ascorbic acid content were measured. The content of soluble tannin was determined by Folin-Denis method and the degree of astringency was determined by panel test. The experiments were conducted in a completely randomized design (CRD) and analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed and the means were compared using LSD Test.
After performing the astringency removal treatment, fruits containing less than 1000 ppm of soluble tannin on a fresh weight basis showed no astringency. Results presented here showed that, dry ice treatment, especially at higher concentrations such as 7% in both cultivars, causes removal of astringency and decreases soluble tannin contents below the threshold of 1000 ppm, but ethanol treatment was effective only in Karaj persimmon for the removal of astringency. Similarly, it was indicated that CO2 treatment removed the astringency more easily in some Chinese cultivars than the ethanol treatment. The response of persimmon cv. Karaj was similar to a leading cultivar Hiratanenashi in Japan, for astringency removal by both CO2 and ethanol treatments, while, according to this results, Japanese cultivar had not shown suitable response to ethanol, while it successfully responded to dry ice treatment.
Treatments to remove astringency of persimmon fruit often cause fruit softening. Astringency removal treatment induced ethylene production in persimmon which causes to the fruits softening. In this study, the firmness of both cultivars decreased significantly after treatments, however, the average of flesh firmness was significantly higher after dry ice than after ethanol treatments.
Total soluble solid contents under the astringency removal treatments in both cultivars reduced significantly. This reduction is due to the removing of soluble tannins responsible for fruit astringency, since they are included in SSC measurements when not polymerized. Moreover, the results showed that ascorbic acid content is not affected by astringency removal treatments.
The results presented here showed that removing astringency from persimmon cvs. Karaj and Japanese were achieved by postharvest application of dry ice in the poly ethylene container. Results also showed that dry ice was more effective than ethanol in astringency removal and retained higher quality of fruit. Dry ice is available treatment in Iran and it can be commercially used for removing astringency of Iranian persimmon.

In order to reduce losses and preserve the fruit quality of green bell pepper cultivar “California Wonder”, this study was designed by using a factorial experiment on the basic of a completely randomized design at Ilam University. Treatments were consisted of pre-harvest spraying of calcium chloride 0.5% (CaCl2), packaging with cellophane, pre-harvest spraying of CaCl2 0.5% with packing of cellophane (CaCl2+ cellophane) and control (without spraying and cellophane packaging). Fruits were stored at 10°C and relative humidity 90-95 percent for 20 days and characteristics were evaluated at harvest, and after 10 and 20 days storage. Results showed that increasing the storage period decreased marketability and the quality of the fruits, but all treatments preserved the quality and marketability of the fruits over the storage period. Among the treatments, weight losses and variation in total soluble solids (TSS), titratable acidity (TA), taste index (TSS/TA ratio), chlorophyll and carotenoid content were lower under calcium + cellophane treatment than what recorded for other treatments and control. Also, calcium + cellophane combination had higher marketability, texture firmness, vitamin C, total phenol and antioxidant capacity. Although, for some characteristics, the treatment’s effect was not significantly different with pre-harvest spraying of CaCl2 0.5%. Altogether, all treatments preserved the quality of fruits in post-harvest, but the combination of calcium + cellophane was better than other treatments. Therefore, using a combination of calcium + cellophane is recommended as a method for reducing losses and maintaining the quality and marketability of green bell peppers during the storing and marketing.

Chitosan in addition to antimicrobial properties is used as an edible coating for improvement storage life of various fruit and vegetables. Weight loss and fungal rot, are the main limiting factors in sweet pepper postharvest life. Therefore in this study the effects of chitosan at concentration of 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2% were investigated on the quality preservation and fungal rot controlling of sweet pepper during storage period. For that, fruit were dipped at different chitosan solutions and after drying were stored for 28 days in 10˚C and 95% RH. After storage, fruit traits such as weight loss, diseases incidence, marketability, firmness, total soluble solids, titratable acidity, ascorbic acid content, dry weight, electrolyte leakage, total phenol content, antioxidant capacity, chlorophyll and carotenoid content and catalase activity were analyzed. Results showed that treated fruits, showed lower weight loss as well as lower fungal disease in comparison to control fruit, however, treated fruit had higher marketability, firmness, total phenol content, titratable acidity, total soluble solid and catalase activity. The positive effects of chitosan improve with increasing its concentration. According to these results, it has been recommended that chitosan ability to extend the storage life of sweet pepper fruit.

In calcareous and alkaline soils, which include most of Iran soils, iron deficiency is prevalent. The main cause of iron deficiency chlorosis is high pH of soil. Among fruit trees, peach shows high sensitivity to iron deficiency. Chelated iron fertilizers with a great ability to make iron soluble and readily absorbed by the plant are used for iron deficiency. For this purpose, an experiment based on a randomized complete block design with three replications was designed and the effect of foliar spray of chelated iron at concentrations of 0, 5 and 10 mg/l on fruit quality of peach (CV. Alberta) was studied. In this experiment the parameters such as amount of soluble solids, titratable acid, flavor index, firmness, antioxidant activity, vitamin C, cell membrane electrolyte leakage, ethylene production and leaf pigments were studied. The results showed that by increasing iron concentration leaf chlorophyll content and antioxidant activity of fruit were increased. Significant effect on carotenoid content of leaves, vitamin C and fruit firmness under different concentrations of iron wasn’t observed. Ethylene production and cell membrane electrolyte leakage also decreased with increasing iron concentration. According to the results, peach fruit quality improved by foliar application of chelated iron during growth.

In order to study the effects of GA3and CaCl2 treatments in resolve the problems of sweet pepper culture in Ilam region (including small size fruits with sunscald and blossom end rot disorders), this study was carried out in Ilam University in 2012. For that, GA3 (50 mg/l) and CaCl2 (0.5%) treatments were sprayed at two (fruit set and 15 days thereafter) and three (fruit set, 10 and 20 days thereafter) times on the ‘California Wonder’ peeper and after ripening fruit characteristics were investigated. The results showed that, in most of the studied traits, there were no significant differences between two and three spraying times. However, GA3 in comparison to control, significantly increased yield, fruit number, marketability, fruit diameter, fruit weight, flesh firmness, fruit dry matter, ascorbic acid content, antioxidant capacity, chlorophyll content, plant height, internodes length, leaf area and lateral branch number and decreased sunscald and blossom end rot rates. CaCl2 treatment as compared to control increased fruit dry matter, flesh firmness, fruit thickness, chlorophyll b and total chlorophyll content, and reduced sunscald and blossom end rot. However, CaCl2 treatment had no significant effects on vegetative properties, including stem height, shoot diameter, internodes length, leaf area, lateral branch number, as well as fruit size and yield. According to these results, application of both GA3 and CaCl2 treatments can be effective in improving the qualitative and quantitative properties of sweet pepper.

In the current study، for improving quality and quantity of ‘Yaghooti’ seedless grape، gibberellic acid was sprayed in four concentrations including zero (as control)، 15، 25 and 40 mg/l، at three stages، and girdling treatments were carried out simultaneously with the third step of GA3 spraying at the base of fruit bearing shoots with four replications. The cluster length was significantly increased by all three concentrations of GA3 in compare with the control. In fact، 14 days after GA3 spray، the cluster length respectively grew to 17. 87، 19. 73 and 23. 95 cm at 15، 25 and 40 mg/L GA3، whereas، in the control sample it was 13. 46 cm. Furthermore، the berry and cluster weight were increased by foliar application of GA3 and girdling in which the maximum berry weight (1. 42 gr) and cluster weight (483. 7 gr) were achieved by interaction of 40 mg/l GA3 and girdling. In addition، girdling treatment significantly led to the increase of the berry length and width as compared to control sample; however، for some traits there was not any meaningful treatment. Application of GA3 and girdling treatment significantly led to the increase of the TSS/TA ratio in compared to control.