The effects of hot water and acid dip treatments on pericarp browning and red color of litchi fruits are shown in Fig. 1. browning increased with storage time. After 1 day of storage, the initial red color of the control fruits had largely disappeared which rendered them commercially unacceptable due to rapid browning, while it took longer to develop this level of browning in fruits treated with oxalic acid (Fig. 1C). The degree of browning inhibition depended on the oxalic acid concentration used. As oxalic acid concentrations increased, browning scores of the treated fruits were lower. Dipping in ascorbic acid or citric acid was not effective in preventing pericarp browning and the treated fruits rapidly turned brown within 1 day (Figs.1B and 1C).