Affiliations 

  • 1 Zhejiang-Malaysia Joint Research Laboratory for Agricultural Product Processing and Nutrition, College of Food and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315100, China
  • 2 College of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Zhejiang Wanli University, Ningbo 315100, China
  • 3 Zhejiang-Malaysia Joint Research Laboratory for Agricultural Product Processing and Nutrition, College of Food and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315100, China. Electronic address: xufeng1@nbu.edu.cn
Food Chem, 2023 May 15;408:135185.
PMID: 36525725 DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2022.135185

Abstract

The effect of melatonin treatment on the carotenoid metabolism in broccoli florets during storage was explored. The results indicated that 100 µmol/L of melatonin maintained the sensory quality of broccoli florets, which retarded the increase of the L* value and the decrease of the H value. Melatonin treatment increased the activities of tryptophan decarboxylase (TDC), tryptamine 5-hydroxylase (T5H), serotonin N-acetyltransferase (SNAT) and N-acetylserotonin methyltransferase (ASMT), leading to the enrichment of endogenous melatonin content in broccoli florets. Meanwhile, the treatment inhibited the concentrations of β-carotene, β-cryptoxanthin, zeaxanthin and lutein, which was beneficial in delaying the yellowing of broccoli. In addition, a series of carotenoid biosynthetic genes such as BoPSY, BoPDS, BoZDS, BoLCYβ and BoZEP was also suppressed by melatonin. Further analysis revealed that the lower carotenoid content and the down-regulated BoNCED expression in treated broccoli resulted in less accumulation of abscisic acid precursors, inhibiting abscisic acid production during the yellowing process.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.