Table 4.

Changes in lycopene and β-carotene content of immature (dark green color) and mature (conventional harvest stage of blackish red color) black tomatoes during storage at various temperatures for 20 d.

Maturity	Storage	Storage period (days)
Stages	Temp.	0	2	6	13	20
Lycopene (mgkg−1 dry weight)
Immature	8 °C		85.3 ± 0.0aD	86.2 ± 0.0aC	89.9 ± 8.2aD	80.1 ± 14.1aC
	12 °C	50.5 ± 0.1Bz	93.8 ± 0.0bC	100.8 ± 6.8abC	109.0 ± 15.7aD	90.5 ± 9.9bC
	20 °C		83.5 ± 3.5bD	97.9 ± 15.7bC	131.1 ± 14.2aC	125.4 ± 9.1aA
Mature	8 °C		105.6 ± 2.0 dB	131.7 ± 0.0bB	159.6 ± 16.9aB	118.1 ± 1.6cAB
	12 °C	105.5 ± 0.0A	129.2 ± 1.5cA	157.0 ± 4.1bA	192.6 ± 20.2aA	107.1 ± 9.0cB
	20 °C		106.9 ± 0.0 dB	138.5 ± 8.7bAB	161.3 ± 9.2aB	125.6 ± 3.4cA
β-carotene (mgkg−1dry weight)
Immature	8 °C		139.7 ± 4.1bAB	166.6 ± 6.1aA	108.8 ± 10.8cBC	31.8 ± 4.6dA
	12 °C	43.6 ± 5.7A	133.5 ± 5.9bBC	183.4 ± 6.6aA	120.9 ± 26.0bB	27.5 ± 2.9cAB
	20 °C		104.4 ± 26.6bD	170.0 ± 24.8aA	127.5 ± 38.5bB	26.1 ± 5.2cB
Mature	8 °C		118.8 ± 1.9bCD	167.1 ± 17.1aA	84.5 ± 4.2cCD	17.3 ± 2.9dC
	12 °C	56.4 ± 8.6A	157.7 ± 5.0cA	188.7 ± 8.3aA	164.3 ± 5.3bA	17.7 ± 0.5dC
	20 °C		132.7 ± 20.9bBC	161.3 ± 33.6aA	80.2 ± 0.3cD	15.0 ± 1.2dC
Lycopene/ Total carotenoids ratio
Immature	8 °C		0.38	0.34	0.45	0.72
	12 °C	0.54	0.41	0.35	0.47	0.77
	20 °C		0.44	0.37	0.51	0.83
Mature	8 °C		0.47	0.44	0.65	0.87
	12 °C	0.65	0.45	0.45	0.54	0.86
	20 °C		0.45	0.46	0.67	0.89

^zMeans with the same uppercase letter in the column or same lowercase letter in the row were not significantly different at P < 0.05 with Duncan’s multiple range test.