Doses of aminoethoxyvinylglycine (AVG) in tomato postharvest storage

Tomatoes are one of the main vegetables found daily in world cuisine and are highly perishable. The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of 'D & eacute;bora' tomato fruits over the post-harvest period in refrigerated storage, after immersion in solutions with different concentrations of aminoethoxyvinylglycine (AVG). The experimental design was entirely randomized in a 4 x 5 double factorial scheme, with four treatments, AVG doses 0 (control), 500, 1,000, and 1,500 mg<middle dot>L-1, and five days of evaluation during the 28 d of refrigerated storage (days 0, 7, 14, 21 and 28) with three replications. Physicochemical analyses were carried out on weight loss, respiration rate, firmness, hydrogen potential (pH), soluble solids, titratable acidity and external and internal fruit color parameters, luminosity, chroma, and degrees hue. Two-way ANOVA, Tukey's mean test (p < 0.05), and multivariate statistical analysis by principal components (PCA) were carried out. The PCA allowed us to infer that, as weight loss increased, firmness decreased, an effect that was minimized with AVG at a dose of 1,500 mg<middle dot>L-1, which may be related to the inhibition of the fruit's ethylene production rate. AVG delayed the post-harvest ripening of tomato fruit, reduced the respiration rate of the fruit, and the changes in external and internal chroma. The doses of AVG did not affect the luminosity and pH of the fruit pulp.