Lychee (Litchi) - Tropical and Subtropical Fruits: Postharvest Physiology, Processing and Packaging - page 245

in Asia are marketed locally. In contrast, lychee production
has a strong export focus in Israel, South Africa, and Thai-
land. Evidently, with an expanding market, there is ample
potential for increasing area and production with improve-
ment of production technology and efficient postharvest
management, storage, and processing technology. This spe-
cial topic for the fresh lychee fruit to control further peri-
carp browning and pathological decay that impedes trade
should be explored, and innovative processing technologies
to produce new lychee products should be addressed.
The prospect of increasing production of lychee and
its relatively short postharvest life as fresh fruit raises
expectations for increased processing opportunities for this
crop. Although a variety of lychee processed products are
produced, the quality standards for these products need to
be established while some innovative processing technolo-
gies should be applied. Particularly, functional foods from
lychee fruit, such as an oral solution against gastralgia, tu-
mors, and enlargements of the glands of consumers, should
be developed rapidly in the future.
Decay and deterioration of visual appearance are the
major postharvest problems of lychee fruit. Although SO 2
fumigation has been used commercially to control pericarp
browning, SO 2 fumigation leaves undesirable residues, al-
ters the fruit taste, and results in health hazards for con-
sumers and packinghouse workers (Sivakumar et al., 2005).
Further development of an alternative postharvest tech-
nology to maintain overall fruit quality during storage,
transportation, and marketing is urgently requested. As
discussed, some new attempts are being made to reduce
postharvest fruit browning and rotting, including prehar-
vest bagging, postharvest handling and temperature man-
agement during storage, transportation, and marketing.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Financial support from the Special Fund for Agricultural
Research in the Public Interest (grant 200903043), National
Natural Science Foundation of China (grants 30425040 and
30928017) and the NSFC-Guangdong Joint Fund of Natu-
ral Sciences (grant U0631004), Guangdong Provincial Nat-
ural Science Foundation (grant 06200670), Guangdong Sci-
ence and Technology Program (grant 2009B040600004),
and the CAS/SAFEA International Partnership Program
for Creative Research Teams is greatly appreciated.

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