title: Toughening and its association with the postharvest quality of king oyster mushroom (Pleurotus eryngii) stored at low temperature.
abstract: Toughening-induced textural decay easily occurs in stored mushrooms. The objective of this study was to investigate the textural alteration caused by toughening in relation to other quality attributes of king oyster mushroom (Pleurotus eryngii). Fresh king oyster mushrooms, packed in low-density polyethylene bags, were stored at different low temperatures for 18 days to measure textural and other quality attributes. It was found that toughening occurred twice during the entire storage time. Highly associated change profiles were observed for the lignin content and activities of three important enzymes involved in lignin synthesis. The chitin and cellulose contents exhibited low correlation with toughening. Malondialdehyde content, electrolyte leakage rate and total phenolics content appeared to be related to toughening, but the browning index showed a negative correlation with toughening. Our results suggested that toughening may be mainly caused by lignification and can affect the postharvest quality of the tested mushrooms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioengineering, College of Food Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, PR China.
authors.forename: Danqing
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioengineering, College of Food Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, PR China.
authors.forename: Xiaoyi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioengineering, College of Food Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, PR China.
authors.forename: Pingping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioengineering, College of Food Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, PR China. Electronic address: wjcasey@scau.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D005519:Food Preservation / Q000379:methods*; D020076:Pleurotus / Q000737:chemistry*; D013696:Temperature
keywords: Lignification; Low temperature; Pleurotus eryngii; Postharvest quality; Texture; Toughening