Department of Science and Technology for Sustainable Development and One Health, Unit of Food Science and Nutrition, Campus Bio-Medico University of Rome, Via Alvaro del Portillo 21, 00128, Rome, Italy.
Department of Science and Technology for Sustainable Development and One Health, Unit of Electronics for Sensor Systems, Campus Bio-Medico University of Rome, Via Alvaro del Portillo 21, 00128, Rome, Italy.
Sci Rep. 2023 Nov 23;13(1):20568. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-47873-4.
Plants are primary source of nutrients for humans. However, the nutritional value of vegetables tends to decrease once organ and tissue sinks are detached from the plant. Minimal processing of leafy vegetables involves cutting and washing before packaging and storage. These processing procedures result in stressful conditions and post-harvest disorders senescence-related can also occur. The aim of this work is to define a methodological pipeline to evaluate the "quality" changes of fresh cut leafy vegetables over their shelf-life. At this purpose, intra-species variability has been investigated considering two varieties of Lactuca sativa (var. longifolia and capitata), showing different susceptibility to browning. Since browning mainly depends on phenol oxidation, redox parameters as well as the activity of the enzymes involved in phenol biosynthesis and oxidation have been monitored over storage time. At the same time, the metabolic changes of the lettuce leaves have been estimated as response patterns to chemical sensors. The obtained sensor outputs were predictive of browning-related biological features in a cultivar-dependent manner. The integration of the results obtained by this multivariate methodological approach allowed the identification of the most appropriate quality markers in lettuce leaves from different varieties. This methodological pipeline is proposed for the identification and subsequent monitoring of post-harvest quality of leafy vegetables.
植物是人类营养的主要来源。然而，一旦器官和组织从植物上脱落，蔬菜的营养价值往往会降低。叶菜类蔬菜的最低加工处理包括切割和清洗，然后再进行包装和储存。这些加工过程会导致压力条件和收获后障碍（与衰老相关的）发生。本工作的目的是定义一种方法学管道，以评估新鲜切割叶类蔬菜在货架期内的“质量”变化。为此，考虑了两种莴苣（长叶莴苣和头状莴苣）的种内变异性，它们对褐变的敏感性不同。由于褐变主要取决于酚类氧化，因此在贮藏过程中监测了氧化还原参数以及参与酚类生物合成和氧化的酶的活性。同时，估计了生菜叶片的代谢变化作为对化学传感器的响应模式。以品种依赖性的方式，获得的传感器输出可预测与褐变相关的生物学特征。通过这种多元方法学方法获得的结果的整合，确定了来自不同品种的生菜叶片中最合适的质量标志物。该方法学管道用于鉴定和随后监测叶菜类蔬菜的收获后质量。
