Postharvest Physiology of Horticultural Crops

Dear Colleagues,

The open access journal Horticulturae (IF: 3.1; Q1 in Horticulture) is pleased to announce that the launch of a new Special Issue titled “Postharvest Physiology of Horticultural Crops”. Given your expertise in this field, we would like to invite you to contribute an article to this Special Issue.

Fruits and vegetables have different compositions and are all subject to physiological changes during development or postharvest (storage or commercialization), which can modify their quality characteristics such as appearance, firmness, sugar content, pigments, and defense mechanisms. Profound modifications can occur due to physicochemical and biochemical changes that have a strong impact on sensory characteristics, influencing product acceptability and postharvest loss.

Furthermore, the adoption of several postharvest technologies has guaranteed the shelf-life of products during their marketable period, which can alter the metabolism of fruit and vegetables, and therefore, assessing the impact of these technologies on the postharvest physiology is necessary, for example, fruits and vegetables exhibit different behaviors when exposed to specific postharvest treatments. Although respiration rate and ethylene levels are the key metabolic events in fruits and vegetables during their development or ripening, physical, chemical, and biochemical changes can also be influenced by controllable and non-controllable preharvest factors.

The scientific findings have proven that cultivars with superior qualities associated with specific postharvest technology guarantee a higher nutritional quality for a longer period, in addition to contributing to greater food security, a critical global issue, with a significant impact on reducing postharvest losses and food waste.

Prof. Dr. Edna Maria Mendes Aroucha
Dr. Ricardo Henrique De Lima Leite
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Horticulturae is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• breeding
• packaging
• food technology
• postharvest biology
• postharvest technology
• food chemistry