Pretreatment with high oxygen controlled atmosphere enhanced fresh‐cut white mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) quality via activating wounding stress defenses

Abstract BACKGROUND High oxygen treatment has been proven to be effective in fresh‐cut white mushroom preservation, however, the preservation effect and possible mechanisms in high oxygen controlled atmosphere pretreatment (HOCAP) on wounding stress are incompletely understood. RESULTS In this study, based on the time chosen of HOCAP research, whole white mushrooms treated with 3 h HOCAP (80% O 2 + 20% CO 2 ) and the wounding resistant responses of their slices were mainly investigated through phenylpropane pathway, reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging system, and ascorbate–glutathione (AsA–GSH) cycle. Results showed that 3 h HOCAP can induce the production of hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) and superoxide anion (O 2 −• ) in the early stage, as well as the NADPH oxidase activity. Enzymes and endogenous antioxidants involved in ROS scavenging were enhanced by HOCAP during the whole storage. Besides, HOCAP maintained high level of phenylalanine ammonia‐lyase (PAL) activity, enhanced the content of total phenolic and lignin, accelerated the AsA–GSH cycle. CONCLUSION The results demonstrated that HOCAP induced defense responses by increasing the ROS in the early stage which stimulated the activities of ROS scavenging enzymes, along with the capability of increasing for wounding stress defense and resistance. This study provides a theoretical pretreatment technology for fresh‐cut white mushroom preservation. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry.