Figure 1.
External changes of control (MT0) and melatonin-treated (MT400) basil leaves during cold storage, visual progress of PCI symptoms (A), close view of leaf PCI (B), symptoms shown with red arrows, discoloration and darkening (left), darkening and water loss (right), CII (scale 1–5) (C), symptom area (%) (D), violin/jitter plots of data distribution, *(p < 0.05) by Kruskal–Wallis test, objective color descriptors (E), violin plots of data distribution, **(p < 0.01), ***(p < 0.001) by unpaired t-test; NS – nonsignificant
Table 1.
Electrolyte leakage (%) of control (MT0) and melatonin-treated (MT400) basil leaves during cold storage
| D0 | D12 | |
|---|---|---|
| MT0 | 16.2 ± 2.5Ab | 33.7 ± 6.7Aa |
| MT400 | 16.1 ± 0.8Ab | 33.4 ± 9.7Aa |
[i] Values are the mean ± standard error (SE) of 6 clamshells and were calculated after 12 days of storage at 3.5 ± 1°C; different capital letters indicate significant difference (p < 0.05) between treatments, and different lower-case letters indicate significant difference between days of storage by Tukey's test
Table 2.
Total soluble solids (°Brix) of control (MT0) and melatonin-treated (MT400) basil leaves during cold storage
| D0 | D12 | |
|---|---|---|
| MT0 | 4.08 ± 0.17Aa | 4.42 ± 0.20Aa |
| MT400 | 3.98 ± 0.07Ab | 4.87 ± 0.21Aa |
[i] Note: see Table 1
Figure 2.
Compositional changes of control (MT0) and melatonin-treated (MT400) basil leaves during cold storage, violin plots of data distribution, leaves were stored for 0 (D0) and 12 (D12) days at 3.5 ± 1 °C, MDA content (A), TP content (B), expressed as mg gallic acid per 100 mg sample, *(p < 0.05); ***(p < 0.001) by unpaired t-test, NS – nonsignificant
Figure 3.
Partial least-squares discriminant analysis of visual and physiological parameters of control (MT0) and melatonin-treated (MT400) basil leaves during cold storage, scores plot, leaves were stored for 0 (D0) and 12 (D12) days at 3.5 ± 1 °C, data were normalized (square root transformation) and displayed at 95% confidence region, each color represents a treatment, the first two components account for 95.7% of the variance