Abstract: Peach fruits (Amygdalus persica 'Bayuecui') were stored in air (CK) and controlled atmosphere (CA,10%O₂+10%CO₂) at 0～1 ℃ to evaluate the storage effect. The fruit firmness, juice extraction rate, membrane permeability, pectinesterase(PE), polygalacturonase (PG), polyphenol oxidase (PPO), catalase (CAT) and peroxidase (POD) activities as well as flesh browning were measured and analyzed. The results showed that CA-stored peach fruits remained the better consumer quality than CK did. Not only relayed the appearance of flesh browning, but also significantly decreased the degree of flesh browning. It significantly increased the content of soluble sugar, the activity of CAT during the entire storage, and the activity of PPO at the later stage of storage. The activity of POD and membrane permeability were inhibited significantly (P<0.05). It was found that peach fruits stored for up to 60 d in CA had no unacceptable loss of quality, while the storage time in CK was only 30 d with the same fruit quality.

Key words: 'Bayuecui' peach, controlled atmosphere storage, quality attributes, enzyme activity