Climacteric pattern of respiration in pepper (Piper nigrum L.)

M. N. Latifah , A. R. Abd. Shukor , S. l. Sim  and Abu Bakar, U. K.

Abstract

Berries of pepper (Piper nigrum  L. cv. Semongok Emas) exhibited increasing trends in respiration rate and ethylene production as the storage period was extended. A larger increase in the respiration rate was observed in the breakerstage berries compared with the immature berries. The activity of ACC oxidase was not detected in berries at the immature stage. However, higher activity of ACC oxidase was observed in the early ripe stage followed by the breaker and the mature-green stages. Exogenous ethylene treatment tended to hasten the respiration rate and ethylene production. However, the magnitude of increase is not proportional to the concentrations of exogenous ethylene. Thus, these results show that pepper exhibits a climacteric pattern of respiration.

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