Effect of natural antibrowning agents on color and related enzymes in fresh-cut Fuji apples as an alternative to the use of ascorbic acid

Abstract

Polyphenoloxidase (PPO) and peroxidase (POD) were evaluated in fresh-cut Fuji apple slices and the effect of the individual or combined use of ascorbic acid, 4-hexylresorcinol, N-acetylcysteine, and glutathione on their respective activities was determined. Additionally, color changes during storage at 4 °C were measured throughout 14 d of storage. PPO activity increased with storage time and was inhibited by the individual use of N-acetylcysteine and glutathione. POD activity in the apple slices was effectively inhibited by the combined use of ascorbic acid with any of the other antibrowning agents. On the other hand, an individual treatment with 1% N-acetylcysteine helped in maintaining the color of fresh-cut apples during 14 d of storage, whereas the use of ascorbic acid was not enough to prevent color deterioration of the apple slices from the 1st day of storage. The results obtained corroborated the effectiveness of other natural antibrowning agents over the traditional use of ascorbic acid in the control of the enzymatic browning in the fresh-cut fruit industry.

This study was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology (AGL2003-09208-C03-01), the European Social Fund, and by the Dept. d’Univ., Recerca i Societat de la Informaci´o of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Spain that also awarded author Rojas-Grau with a predoctoral grant. We also acknowledge ACTEL (Lleida, Spain) for supplying the Fuji apples employed in this study.