Control of the state of water in persimmon for the extension of post-harvest life

Metabolism is based on intracellular chemical reactions which are enzyme mediated. The rate of enzyme reaction is regulated by the diffusion of substrate that is governed by the viscosity of water. As the formation of structured water by dissolution of xenon gas could make the viscosity of water larger, suppression of metabolism is expected because of resultant low rate of enzyme reaction. On this basis, structured water created by dissolution of xenon was confirmed by the change in spin-lattice relaxation time observed by proton NMR measurement Then, xenon gas was applied to persimmon up to 0.25 MPa to make intracellular water structured and stored for 25 days at 278 K. The measurement of CO2 evolved from persimmon showed the suppression of respiratory metabolism and preservation of cellular structure tvas observed through a scanning electron microscope.