Effect of three-stage hypobaric storage on membrane lipid peroxidation and activities of defense enzyme in green asparagus

The effect of three-stage hypobaric storage on free radical content, membrane lipid peroxidation, activities of cell defense enzyme and surface color (L* value, a* value and b* value) in green asparagus was studied as compared with the atmosphere cold storage. The three-stage hypobaric condition significantly increased the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT), decreased the accumulation of malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide anion (O2−) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), inhibited the increase of relative leakage rate, delayed the degeneration of surface color, and controlled the increase of peroxidase (POD) activity. It was concluded that three-stage hypobaric storage could obviously inhibit asparagus senescence and that the storage life of 50 days could be achieved as compared with the storage life of only 25 days in atmosphere cold condition.