and at the RR stage ethylene-treated tomatoes had 24% higher
folate content compared to the RR control fruit (Fig. 3A). The
individual folates that were affected by the treatment were 5-CH3-
THF and 5-CHO-THF. These results show that total folate content of
this fruit was strongly affected by ethylene treatment, while the
effect of ripening stage was minor but significant and no
interaction between the two factors was observed. On the other
hand, no effects were found when comparing total folate content
evolution during DAT, only 5-CH3-THF was slightly affected by DAT
and 5,10-CH=THF was affected by the treatment when using this
comparison (
The above results showed opposite effects of ethylene
treatment on the evolution of folate levels throughout the
postharvest ripening of papayas and tomatoes. These results also
indicated different folate dynamics between these fruits during
postharvest ripening. Therefore, we decided to explore folate
trends in other climacteric fruit, and we chose banana and avocado
fruit for this purpose. Banana is a staple food that is highly
consumed worldwide (D’Hont et al., 2012), while avocado is
recognized as a fruit with an outstanding nutritional quality
(Dreher and Davenport, 2013).
3.3. Ethylene treatment significantly increases folate content in ripe
banana fruit
Banana fruit had modest total folate levels; the controls
accumulated close to 30 mg in a 100 g portion of ripe fruit, which