Inhibition of hardy kiwifruit (Actinidia aruguta) ripening by 1-methylcyclopropene during cold storage and anticancer properties of the fruit extract

Hardy kiwifruits (Actinidia arguta) were treated with 20 μl/l 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) for 16 h at 10 °C and subsequently stored at 1 ± 0.5 °C. Anticancer properties of the fruit extracts were tested against five different human cancer cells. The hardy kiwifruits, without 1-MCP treatment, showed increases in both respiration and ethylene production rates during fruit storage. The 1-MCP treatment remarkably inhibited fruit ripening by reducing respiration and ethylene production. Fruits with the 1-MCP treatment could be stored for up to 5 weeks by maintaining higher fruit firmness, ascorbic acid and total phenolic contents compared to the control. The hardy kiwifruit extracts showed anti-proliferative effects to Hep3B and HeLa cells but not to HT29, HepG2 and LoVo cells. These results suggest that the application of 1-MCP at harvest effectively delayed the ripening process of the fruits, and the fruit extract had beneficial effects for the prevention of human cancer growth.