[Changes in respiratory rate, ethylene production rate and quality of postharvest Chinese bayberry fruits with different maturities].

Harvested fruits of three Chinese bay-berry (Myrica rubra Sieb. Zucc.) varieties, i.e.“Biqi”, “Dongkui” and “Zaodamei”, which were di-vided into three maturities (designated as“Immature”, “Mature” and “Ripe”) according to fruitcolour, were investigated for the changes in climac-teric pattern and quality at 20oC. Respiration rateand ethylene production rate were underwent 3 hduring 48 h storage. Our result showed that bothImmature and Mature fruits underwent rises in res-piration and ethylene production rate of a climac-teric rise, but no such peak was observed in Ripefruit (Figs.1 and 2). Total soluble solids (TSS) con-tents increased with maturity and decreased overthe 48 h at 20oC (Fig.3); titratable acidity (TA) de-creased with the maturity and throughout 48 h stor-age period (Fig.4). In “Biqi” Chinese bayberry fruit,PAL activities increased in Immature and Mature fruit, but, it decreased in Ripe fruit during the stor-age period; the change in Cy-3-Glu with fruit ripen-ing was consistent with PAL activities (Table 1); therewas significant positive correlation between CIRG(Color Index for Red Grape) values and Cy-3-Glucontent (r=0.96**). This study provides importantinformation on the postharvest behaviour of Chi-nese bayberry fruit, and our result shows that it isclimacteric fruit.