Harvesting method highly affects to quality characteristics of

Aralia elata during storage

Hyowon Park*, Chul-Woo Kim, Hanna Shin, Uk Lee

(Division of Forest Special Products, National Institute of Forest Science, Suwon 16631, Korea)

Abstract: Aralia elata belongs to the family Araliaceae, which is widely distributed in Korea, Japan, China and Russia. It is well-known for its medicinal effects to human health. In the spring time, young shoots of A. elata are consumed as a popular vegetable. However, it exhibits a high metabolic activity after harvest and hence is easily lost good quality; therefore, it is hard to store more than 2 weeks. The objective of this study was to examine the effects of harvesting methods on shoots quality characteristics and storability during and after cold storage. The harvest methods were divided into two ways; 1) only shoots were harvested (SH) which is conventionally used method and 2) shoots with branch were harvested (SBH) which is newly suggesting method for A. elata harvesting. The bunches of shoots from each harvesting way were collected plastic boxes and then stored at 3±1 °C for 7 weeks. Weight loss of SH (17.1%) was significantly higher than SBH (9.1%) after 4 weeks of storage. Lightness of leaves in SH was lower than SBH during storage period. Wilt, decay and off-odor index (0-5) showed 1.2, 5.0 and 0.7 in SH while 3.8, 3.8 and 3.7 in SBH after 4 weeks, respectively. Overall quality index (0-15) was rapidly decreasing 15.0 to 7.3 in SH while SBH slightly reduced 15.0 to 12.2 after 4 weeks. It indicates that the quality of shoots was determined by wilt and off-odor index after harvesting. In conclusion, using the SBH method able to maintain product quality for 4 weeks after harvest, which is a remarkable extension of A. elata storage. These results demonstrate that the potential of using the newly proposed method, SBH is able to contribute to improved quality and prolong storage period of A. elata.

key words: harvest, shelf-life, leafy vegetable, postharvest, wilt