L’epifluorescenza del succo vacuolare come parametro qualitativo dei prodotti ortofrutticoli

ABSTRACT - The vacuolar sap epifluorescence as a quality parameter of fruits and vegetables.- Phenolic compounds play a major role in the interaction of plants with their environment. Tomatoes are an important part of the human diet because they supply essential nutrients such as vitamins and minerals and they are also considered important to human health and well-being because they contain other necessary compounds such as antioxidants. Consumers are concerned about the quality of the fruits they eat and the quality is linked to the richness in antioxidant compounds. In this work, phenolic antioxidant compounds localization has been studied by using S. lycopersicum fruits as experimental system. Metabolites accumulation in the vacuole has been revealed by using confocal laser scanning microscopy. In fact, CLSM provide the opportunity to study tissue localization of phenolic compounds thanks to their epifluorescence. Moreover, CLSM aids in the identification of chemical components using their specific fluorescence characteristics, on the basis of their absorbance and emission behavior.