Enhancement of health-promoting and plant-protecting secondary metabolites by postharvest conditioning with hormetic doses of abiotic stresses

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Our long-term goal is to develop post-harvest conditioning technologies to preserve the quality of fresh fruits and vegetables with enhancement in health-promoting and plant-protecting secondary metabolites using hormetic or beneficial doses of abiotic stresses that are suitable for application in the postharvest phase. Given that plants produce secondary metabolites as weapons to combat stresses, it is possible that the response can well be tuned to achieve a balance between enhancement of desirable phytochemicals and acceptability of the produce by exposing them to controlled doses of the stressors. Our efforts in the short- to medium-term will be focused on gaining an understanding of the connections between hormetic stressors and secondary metabolite production in fresh produce, and an understanding of the stress-induced alterations in the metabolic pathways. Going forward, the research would involve: (1) the identification of hormetic abiotic stresses that are effective in inducing or enhancing targeted (or desired) secondary metabolites in selected fresh produce; (2) the characterization of the selected hormetic stresses for their generation of signal components and the consequent synthetic capacity in the stressed tissues; (3) the profiling of primary metabolites, and secondary metabolites of the pathways that produce the desired phytochemicals in the crops exposed to the stresses and their combinations; (4) the elucidation of the relationships between signal components, synthetic capacity status, and secondary metabolites in the stressed tissues; and (5) the evaluation of alterations in the primary, and the secondary metabolic pathways. Studies will be performed with carrot root, broccoli and tomato fruit. The knowledge gained from this research will provide the tools to develop postharvest conditioning protocols by informed selection of hormetic stresses or a combination of stresses to achieve enhanced production of desired secondary metabolites. Phytochemical-enriched fresh fruits and vegetables are considered as a new class of functional foods. Preservation of fresh crops with enhanced attributes of health benefits and disease resistance will not only help the fresh produce industry to reduce postharvest losses, but also help them to ensure a healthier population. ********