Studies on the extension of shelf-life of fresh fruits and vegetables

In order to elucidate the retardation of color development of tomato fruits packaged with polyethylene bag, changes of carotenoids in fresh fruits, especially colorless intermediates, were investigated.1. During the ripening of tomatoes after harvest, chlorophyll content in tomato fruit decreased, while lycopene content increased sharply.2. When coloring of tomatoes was controlled by packaging with polyethylene bag, both of the decreasing of chlorophyll and the formation of lycopene were suppressed, but carotene contents slightly increased as well as in unpackaged fruits.3. In the packaged fruits containing little lycopene, abnormal accumulation of colorless carotenoids, phytoene and phytofluene, were not observed, although much content of them were found in unpackaged fruits which contained much content of lycopene.4. From the above results, it is assumed that the suppression of lycopene formation in tomato fruits packaged with polyethylene bag is not controlled by inhibition of dehydrogenation of phytoene and phytofluene, colorless carotenoids, but by the lack of intermediates which might have formed in the pathway from terpenyl pyrophosphate to phytoene.