Melatonin-based Food Preservation Solution

Melatonin is known to be involved in important plant processes such as seed germination, root development, flowering, photosynthesis or leaf senescence and has now been shown to play an important role in fruit and vegetable preservation as well. Aprofood deeply explores the mechanism of action of melatonins and is committed to providing global customers with a full range of food preservation solutions.

What is Melatonin?

Melatonin, N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine (MLT), is a pleiotropic molecule with a wide range of cellular and physiological effects in living organisms. MLT was originally discovered in the pineal gland and is involved in the sleep-wake cycle in mammals. Dietary MLT supplementation has been shown to help with markers of inflammation, hypertension, oxidative stress, metabolic syndrome, regulating and maintaining regular circadian rhythms, or improving sleep and rest. Furthermore, MLT is involved in important plant processes such as seed germination, root development, flowering, photosynthesis or leaf senescence. The ability of MLT to enhance plant responses to a variety of abiotic stresses is currently accepted. It has been found that MLT can enhance the innate resistance of plants to pathogens. Recent findings suggest that MLT also plays an important role in the production and preservation of different fruits.

Application of Melatonin in Food Preservation

MLT has been thoroughly explored to extend the shelf life of postharvest fruit and improve fruit quality. It was found that the changes in color, firmness, total soluble solids content and titratable acidity of strawberry fruit were significantly delayed after treatment with MLT. Exogenous MLT treatment slowed down the decline of postharvest cucumber chlorophyll, vitamin C, titration-acid and soluble protein content. In addition, studies have found that MLT treatment increased lycopene levels and up-regulated genes critical for postharvest color development of tomato fruits. MLT also has a certain effect on fruit aroma. MLT can inhibit the activity of hydrogen peroxide lyase and the content of hexanal and (E)-hex-2-enal, and increase the activity of alcohol acyltransferase. These metabolic alterations affected the production of C₆ aromatic substances.

Fig. 1 An Exogenous melatonin delays banana senescence. (Li, et al., 2019)

Our Solutions

Aprofood has extensive experience in using phytohormones to preserve fruits and vegetables, and has in-depth research on the regulation mechanism of melatonin in various plants. We have the ability to provide global customers with comprehensive food preservation solutions based on melatonin.

Endogenous and exogenous MLT have different mechanisms of action. We focus on the involvement of endogenous MLT in the defense and growth of fruits, and pay attention to the changes of its concentration during fruit development and the subsequent series of physiological changes.

For exogenous MLT, we focus on the preservation effect on fruits and vegetables. In our solutions, we provide a variety of phytohormone compound applications and multi-method joint applications to meet the different needs of customers. In addition, we focused on evaluating the ability of exogenous MLT to delay postharvest fruit senescence, improve fruit enzymatic browning, and enhance its resistance to chilling damage.

Our Advantages

Professional Team and Rich Experience

Experienced in Food Preservation

Various Solutions are Provided

One-stop Service Process

Aprofood is committed to providing extensive support to customers around the world in food preservation related research. If you are interested or have not found a suitable option, please contact us to learn more about our food preservation related solutions!

References

1. Li, T. T., Wu, Q. X., Zhu, H., Zhou, Y. J., Jiang, Y. M., Gao, H. J., & Yun, Z. (2019). Comparative transcriptomic and metabolic analysis reveals the effect of melatonin on delaying anthracnose incidence upon postharvest banana fruit peel. BMC Plant Biology, 19, 289.
2. Wang, S. Y., Shi, X. C., Wang, R., Wang, H. L., Liu, F., & Laborda, P. (2020). Melatonin in fruit production and postharvest preservation: A review. Food chemistry, 320, 126642.