Senescence and Postharvest Studies of Cut Flowers: A Critical Review

Flower senescence is the terminal phase of developmental processes that leads to the end of its life span. Since a number of developing countries are attracted to this global fresh flower trade for commercial purpose, this phenomenon is major obstacle for all the floricultural industries. Therefore, research related to postharvest changes was carried out to mitigate this problem. The post-harvest events in floricultural crops reflecting petal senescence are being reviewed in this paper, whereby various physiological and biochemical studies having data regarding lipid peroxidation, loss of membrane integrity and protein degradation central to petal senescence are included. Ultrastructural changes involving change in various cell organelles viz. rupturing of vacuole, tonoplast membrane invagination, chloroplast degradation in mesophyll cells, as well as change in mitochondria ultrastructure have also been recited. This review also pays attention to the issues related to carbohydrate metabolism and change in anthocyanin pigmentation during postharvest life. Various enzymatic activities, supporting petal senescence and current status of postharvest technology applied to cut flowers to enhance their vase life especially by using preservatives in the form of energy source like sucrose and other sugars, biocides, mineral ions, growth regulators or various metabolic inhibitors, providing practice solution to global cut flower market, are cited.