The influence of short-term storage on the content of flavonoids and vitamin C in broccoli.

摘要

Postharvest handling of vegetable crops, including storage, may affect the level of bioactive compounds present in plants. Two-year study on the influence of temperature during short-term storage (6 and 24 h) at room temperature and cold-storage (one week) on the content of quercetin, kaempferol and vitamin C in broccoli heads were performed. General Linear Model (GLM) and cluster analysis (CA) were applied to evaluate the effect of time and temperature of storage on the content of tested compounds. It was found that quercetin and kaempferol were stable and no losses of these compounds were observed during storage at room temperature. Vitamin C content significantly decreased under these conditions, whereas cold-storage had no significant influence on the content of this compound in comparison to fresh broccoli. It was also found that the increase of room temperature of storage caused the increase in quercetin and kaempferol contents and higher losses of vitamin C. The drop of cold temperature of storage may also cause decrease in flavonoid content in broccoli. The results demonstrate the importance of storage temperature for the content of vitamin C and flavonoids in broccoli.