Effect of hot water treatment on chlorophyll, ßcarotine and lycopene content of tomato fruit during storage
Chlorophyll content of both treated and control green tomato fruits decreased during storage. The chlorophyll content in the control was higher than that of the hot water treated fruits (Figure 4A) until day eight. However, there was no difference among the treatments on their chlorophyll content of the fruits after day eight (Figure 4A). This implies that fruits without hot water treatment did show a degradation of chlorophyll, although they retained more chlorophyll than the treated fruits. In
addition, fruits treated with 40 and 50°C for 20 min rapidly lost original chlorophyll after chilling and ripening (Figure 4A).