Post-harvest diseases of fruit and vegetables have to be controlled because of the high added value of commodities and the great economic loss related to spoilage. Synthetic fungicides are the first choice worldwide to control post-harvest diseases of fruit and vegetables. However, several problems and constraints related to their use have forced scientists to develop alternatives control means to prevent post-harvest diseases. Physical and biological means, resistance inducers, and GRAS (generally recognized as safe) compounds are the most important alternatives used during the last 20 years. Recently, nanomaterial treatments have demonstrated promising results and they are being investigated to reduce the utilization of synthetic fungicides to control post-harvest rot in fruit and vegetables. The collective information in this review article covers a wide range of nanomaterials used to control post-harvest decays related to each selected fruit crop including grape, citrus, banana, apple, mango, peach, and nectarine. Other examples also used are apricot, guava, avocado, papaya, dragon, pear, longan, loquat, jujubes, and pomegranate fruits.

Hybrid (Vitis vinifera × Vitis labrusca) table grape cultivars grown in the subtropics often fail to accumulate sufficient anthocyanins to achieve good uniform berry color. Growers of V. vinifera table grapes in temperate regions generally use ethephon and, more recently, (S)-cis-abscisic acid (S-ABA) to overcome this problem. The objective of this study was to determine if S-ABA applications at different timings and concentrations have an effect on anthocyanin regulatory and biosynthetic genes, pigment accumulation, and berry color of the Selection 21 cultivar, a new V. vinifera × V. labrusca hybrid seedless grape that presents lack of red color when grown in subtropical areas. Applications of S-ABA 400 mg/L resulted in a higher accumulation of total anthocyanins and of the individual anthocyaninsanthocyanins: delphinidin-3-glucoside, cyanidin-3-glucoside, peonidin-3-glucoside, and malvidin-3-glucoside in the berry skin and improved the color attributes of the berries. Treatment with two applications at 7 days after véraison (DAV) and 21 DAV of S-ABA 400 mg/L resulted in a higher accumulation of total anthocyanins in the skin of berries and increased the gene expression of CHI, F3H, DFR, and UFGT and of the VvMYBA1 and VvMYBA2 transcription factors in the seedless grape cultivar.

Brazil is one of the three largest beer producers in the world. Four basic ingredients are needed as raw material for the production of beer: water, malt, yeast, and hops (Humulus lupulus L.). Until recently, almost all of the hops in Brazil were imported from other countries. However, in the last decade, hop cultivation in Brazil has emerged due to the increase in the number of new craft breweries, which have demanded diversified raw material for the production of various types of beer. Hops is considered a short-day, temperate species, so the major challenge for the development of hop cultivation in Brazil, with high-yield capacity and with local typicity of bitterness and aroma, is the adaptation of cultivars to the photoperiod conditions in subtropical regions. This review addresses the history of hop cultivation in Brazil and characterizes the main climatic elements of three emerging subtropical growing regions located at different latitudes, such as air temperature, photoperiod, solar radiation, and water availability, to provide support for the development of new technologies for hop cultivation, including supplemental lighting, irrigation, and mulching.

‘Italia’ grape is one of the most important table grape cultivars grown worldwide. Gray mold, caused by Botrytis cinerea Pers. Fr., is one of the most important causes of postharvest decay of table grapes, and the control of this disease is very difficult because postharvest treatments with synthetic fungicides are not allowed in many countries. The objective of this study was to compare different types of pads releasing different doses of SO₂ during cold storage to control gray mold in ‘Italia’ table grapes grown under subtropical conditions. Grape bunches were harvested from a commercial field trained on an overhead trellis located at Cambira, state of Parana (PR), South Brazil. The grapes were packed into carton boxes (capacity, 4.5 kg) and subjected to the following SO₂ pad treatments (Uvasys^®, Cape Town, South Africa) under cold storage (1.0 ± 1 °C) for 50 days: (i) Control; (ii) SO₂ slow release pad; (iii) SO₂ dual release pad; (iv) SO₂ dual release–fast reduced pad; (v) SO₂ slow release pad with grapes inoculated with B. cinerea suspension; (vi) SO₂ dual release pad with grapes inoculated with B. cinerea suspension; and (vii) SO₂ dual release-fast reduced pad with grapes inoculated with B. cinerea suspension. After cold storage, the grape boxes were maintained for 7 days at room temperature (25 °C). The incidence of gray mold on the grapes, firmness, shattered berries, stem browning, as well as other physicochemical variables, such as bunch mass, bunch mass loss, skin color, soluble solids (SS), titratable acidity (TA) and SS/TA were evaluated. Both SO₂ dual release pads were highly efficient in preventing the incidence of gray mold in ‘Italia’ grapes packed in clamshells during the 50-day period of cold storage and at room temperature, even with Botrytis-inoculated berries. The SO₂ slow release pad showed lower efficiency, but was higher than the control. The SO₂ dual release pad treatments provided the best results with respect to stem browning scores (fresh and green stems) during cold storage, and no differences were observed among the treatments with respect to the other physicochemical evaluations.