Postharvest Treatments Affecting Storage Quality of Chinese Jujubes

Jujubes are recognized as the most important Ziziphus species for fruit production in the buckthorn family Rhamnaceae. China is the only country known to be exporting jujube fruits. Chinese jujubes have a high market value, and the maintenance of quality after harvest is an important issue to growers. Several factors, such as environmental conditions, cultivars, cultural practices, susceptibility to pests and diseases, time of harvest, and postharvest conditions determine the quality of these commodities. To gain the best value for growers, storage operators, and customers, it is very important to maintain quality during postharvest storage. Respiration, an important physiological metabolism of postharvest fruit, reflects the dissipative speed of tissue inclusion. One of the most important reasons for the rotting of jujube fruits is that ethanol is accumulated and the fruits get brown and soften during storage, known as “alcoholic fermentation.” Calcium plays an important role in postharvest fruit on physiological and biochemical characteristics and the storability.