Effect of UV radiation on postharvest conservation of blueberries

Abstract

The objective of this work is to determine the variation in the nutritional and qualitycharacteristics of blueberries subjected to UV radiation. Blueberries of the variety (JEWEL)provided by Tierra de blueberries, Oran, Monteros, Tucuman were used. The parametersanalyzed were variations of the color and content of polyphenols by HPLC and UV-vis.Polyphenols determined by HPLC were: delfinidin-3-galactoside, delfinidine-3-glucoside,cyanidin-3-galactoside, delfinidin-3-arabinoside, cyanidin-3-glucoside, petunidin-3-galactoside, cyanidin-3-arabinoside, petunidin-3-glucoside, peonidin-3-galactoside,petunidin-3-arabinoside, malvidin-3-galactoside and malvidin-3-glucoside. From the resultsobtained, it is concluded that the polyphenol content varied in the irradiated fruits and inthe untreated fruits as a function of time, with the values being closest to the initial timevalue (control) in the case of irradiated fruits. There were no appreciable differences in colorchange due to irradiation. At time 0, the color difference in the whole fruit between thetreated sample (IFC0) and the standard (NFC0) gave ΔE* values equal to 2.06. After 3 days,the color difference was 3.08 for the natural sample and 6.06 for the treated sample. For thisreason, it is considered that irradiation of blueberries is a very appropriate method forconservation, maintaining the nutritional and quality characteristics of blueberries.