Reactive Oxygen Species and Antioxidants in Postharvest Vegetables and Fruits

Figure 1

Postharvest management, balancing ROS and antioxidant content to maintain quality and deliver the most benefits to the consumer. The broken red line illustrates the fragile balance between ROS and antioxidant in plants. A moderate level of ROS is often beneficial to signal various crucial steps during growth and development, including ripening and increased resistance in a postharvest condition. However, elevated ROS concentration that is not coupled with high antioxidant capacity often poses great risk to the plant tissues. Hence, a suitable method of postharvest would be one that is able to limit ROS production while maintaining high antioxidant content.