Study on UV-C Treatment Inhibits Germination and Related Mechanism of Potato during Storage

In order to improve the safety and storage quality of potatoes, the objective of this study was to investigate the effect of ultraviolet C (UV-C) treatment on sprouting suppression and quality of potato during storage. Potatoes were treated with 10 kJ/m² UV-C before storage or both before and medium storage (single-phase UV-C treatment, dual-phase UV-C treatment) and the germination rate, weight loss, reducing sugar, total phenols content, phenylalnine ammonia lyase (PAL) activity, gibberellins (GA₃) and α-solanine content were measured. The results indicated that UV-C treatment could suppress potato sprouting, restrain the growth of GA₃and α-solanine effectively. Furthermore, dual-phase UV-C treatment had a better effect compared with the control and single-phase UV-C treatment. When stored for 90 days, α-solanine content in the skin and flesh of dual-phase UV-C treated potatoes were only 71.09%, 65.75% of the control respectively. At 105 d of storage, the germination rate of dual-phase UV-C treatment was 68.78%, the content of reducing sugar was 0.40% and the weight loss rate was 4.71%. In summary, when the dosage and mode of treatment are suitable, UV-C can obtain good effects in potato germination control and quality maintenance, the dual-phase UV-C treatment is more advantageous and has potential for industrial application in future.