Changes in the Contents of Bioactive Substances and Activities of Antioxidant Enzymes during the Development of Mulberry Fruit
Article
Figures
Metrics
Preview PDF
Reference
Related
Cited by
Materials
Abstract:
The changes in the contents of bioactive substances and the activities of antioxidant enzymes during the development of mulberry fruit were researched. The 3-year-old and 5-year-old mulberry fruits were used as the materials for the studies on the changes of the total phenolics, total flavonoids, phenolic acids, tannins, chlorophyll and carotenoids, anthocyanins, soluble sugar, total antioxidant capacity and antioxidant enzymes’ activities. The obtained results showed that the total phenolics, total flavonoids, phenolic acids, tannins, anthocyanins and soluble sugar contents increased during the fruit development, while chlorophyll a decreased gradually. The contents of chlorophyll b and carotenoids increased firstly and then decreased during the fruit development. The 3-year-old fruit had higher contents of total flavonoids and phenolic acids but lower contents of total phenolics, tannins and carotenoids than the 5-year-old fruit. The activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and phenylalnine ammonialyase (PAL) in the fruit flesh decreased firstly and then increased. The activities of peroxidase (POD) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) decreased gradually whilst the total antioxidant capacity increased gradually. Throughout the development period, the 3-year-old fruit had higher activities of SOD, CAT and PAL but lower APX activity and total antioxidant capacities, compared to the 5-year-old fruit. Therefore, the changes in the contents of bioactive substances and the activities of antioxidant enzymes were closely related to fruit maturity and tree age. During the development of mulberry fruit, the total antioxidant capacity of fruit flesh increased continuously and reached the highest on the 25th day after flowering. The older the mulberry tree, the higher the total antioxidant capacity of fruit was.
