Investigation and analysis of polyphenols and antioxidant activity of different citrus varieties after the ionization treatment by gamma radiation

Bioactive compounds in citrus fruits have been demonstrated to be protective against chronic diseases such as cancer and heart disease, but their degrees may be influanced by postharvest treatments as for example storage and irradiation treatment. Irradiation might ensure natural product decontamination, while maintaining their chemical, organoleptic, nutritional and bioactive qualities In this work, citrus fruits were subject to gamma irradiation at 0, 0.25,0.50 and 1 KGy/h and then stored at 4°C for 30 days, Phenolics, Flavonoid, tanins contents, and antioxidant activity were evaluated at regular intervals during storage. Results demonstrated that treatment by gamma radiation could preserve and have no impact on the phenolic content of citrus fruits during the storage by contrast irradiation treatments persuade the degradation on phenolics content and indicated the increasement of the antioxidant activity mainly on citrus treated at 1kGy/h, These results pointed out that gamma radiation at 0.50 kGy/h can be applied as safe and environmental friendly post-harvest treatment of citrus to preserve their bioactive compounds