For ethylene production and respiration rate, five fruit per treatment were weighed and individually placed in an airtight container equipped with a rubber stopper for 2 h at 25 C. A triplicate sample of 1 mL of headspace gas was taken for ethylene and respiration rate determination. Ethylene production was determined as described by Yan et al. (2011). An additional triplicate sample of
1 mL of headspace gas was withdrawn and injected into a gas chromatograph (G3900, Hitach, Ltd., Japan) for the determination of CO2 production. Both ethylene production and respiration rate were expressed as microgram per kilogram per second.