The effect of carbamic acid, (1,2,3-thiadiazole-4-ylcarbonyl)-hexyl ester on Peronophythora litchii infection, quality and physiology of postharvest litchi fruits

BACKGROUND: Litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) is a subtropical fruit with attractive characteristic of white to creamy semitranslucent flesh and red color in pericap, but it was easily subjected to the infection of Peronophythora litchii and lost its market values. Experiments were conducted to understand the effect of [Carbamic acid, (1,2,3-thiadiazole-4-ylcarbonyl)-hexyl ester, CTE] on the growth of P. litchi and quality properties in litchi fruits during postharvest storage. RESULTS: In vitro experiments, CTE with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC, 5 mg/L) and minimum fungicidal concentration (MFC, 10 mg/L) were against the growth of P. litchi for 2 and 4 days, respectively, and SEM results showed that hyphae of P. litchii shrank, distorted and collapsed after CTE treatment. In vivo experiments, CTE treatment inhibited the increase of disease incidence, browning index, weight loss and PPO activity in non-P. litchii-inoculated fruits, meanwhile the treatment markedly inhibited the decrease of color characteristic (a*, b* and L*), anthocyanin content, phenolic contents, Vc content and POD activity, but TSS content was not significantly influenced during storage. In P. litchii-inoculated fruits, all these above mentioned parameters in CTE treated fruits were significantly higher than that in control fruits, but anthocyanin content, Vc, TSS and TA content did not have consistent differences between control and CTE treated fruits at the end of storage. CONCLUSION: CTE treatment reduced the disease incidence and browning index of litchi fruits, maintained the fruits quality and, thus, it could be an effective postharvest handling to extend the shelf life of litchi fruits during storage. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13065-017-0244-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.