3.3. Respiration rate
NO fumigation treatments (10, 20 and 40 L L−1), but not the
5 L L−1 treatment, significantly (P ≤ 0.01) suppressed the respiratory
climacteric peak by 16.1%, 18.1% and 20.8% during fruit
ripening following 2 weeks of cold storage (Fig. 2C). However, the
differences among these treatments in reducing the respiratory
peak during ripening were not significant. In 4-week cold-stored
fruit, NO treatments did not show any significant effect on the suppression
of the respiration peak during fruit ripening compared to
the control (Fig. 2D). Fruit fumigated with 40 L L−1 NO resulted in
a sharp decline after the climacteric respiration peak as compared
to all other treatments. The interaction between NO fumigation
and ripening period for respiration rate was found to be significant
(P ≤ 0.01) in 2-week cold-stored fruit only.