Postharvest application of natural products to control Botrytis storage rot in kiwifruit

Botrytis stem end rot is the most serious disorder affecting kiwifruit during coolstorage. These rots are primarily caused by Botrytis cinerea spores infecting the fruit through the picking wound after harvest. Postharvest application of dicarboximide fungicides immediately after harvest has been shown to reduce the incidence of rots to very low levels. However this option is increasingly unacceptable due to public concern about and legislation on pesticide residues in fruit. A possible alternative is to apply antimicrobial compounds that occur naturally in food or food products to the picking wound of kiwifruit prior to postharvest storage. Trials using δ-decalactone, δ-dodecalactone and β-ionone have shown some of these natural products to be effective for inhibiting Botrytis rots in kiwifruit.