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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Technical Advances in Plant Science
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1475068
This article is part of the Research Topic In-Depth Understanding of Post-harvest Metabolomic and Molecular Responses of Fresh Produce View all 5 articles
Antioxidant Metabolism Insights into Ripening and Senescence Delay of Green Pepper Fruit through the Salicylic Acid Preharvest Treatment
Provisionally accepted
Alicia Dobón Suárez 
María Gutiérrez Pozo 
Vicente Serna Escolano 
MARIA JOSE GIMENEZ 
Daniel Valero Garrido 
María Serrano 
María Emma García Pastor *
Pedro Javier Zapata - Miguel Hernández University of Elche, Elche, Spain
The systematic investigation of the biochemical and molecular bases of salicylic acid (SA) in the postharvest physiological process of green pepper fruit remains unclear. Accordingly, this study aims to analyse the effects of 0.5 mM-SA preharvest treatments, applied by foliar spraying or irrigation, on the ripening and senescence of green pepper fruit for 28 days of storage at 7 ºC. The study revealed that the preharvest application of SA, either by foliar spraying or irrigation, significantly delayed losses of weight, firmness and colour during postharvest. Additionally, both treatments increased the total soluble solids and total acidity content, which lead to a significantly reduced ripening index after storage. These results were evidenced by a slowing down of the ripening and senescence processes, accompanied by the stimulation of the antioxidant enzymes in those SA-treated green pepper fruits. Furthermore, a significant increase in chlorophylls, phenolics, ascorbic acid and dehydroascorbic acid content was observed. The SA treatments also enhanced the total antioxidant activity, in both hydrophilic and lipophilic phases. These positive effects were mediated by the upregulation of the relative response of the CaAPX, CaPOD, CaPAL, CaDHAR2 genes at harvest. These findings reinforce the existing knowledge gap regarding the impact of foliar spraying or irrigation SA on the intricate interplay between metabolites and genes related to the antioxidant system in regulating the bell pepper fruit ripening and senescence. The impact of both applications exhibited comparable results; however, the irrigation was identified as the most advantageous due to its ease applicability and costeffectiveness in comparison.
Keywords: Capsicum annuum L., Quality losses, bioactive compounds, antioxidant capacity, Antioxidant Enzymes, relative gene expression
Received: 02 Aug 2024; Accepted: 17 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Dobón Suárez, Gutiérrez Pozo, Serna Escolano, GIMENEZ, Valero Garrido, Serrano, García Pastor and Zapata. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
María Emma García Pastor, Miguel Hernández University of Elche, Elche, Spain
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