ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Crop and Product Physiology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1654517
Brassinosteroids preharvest treatments as a useful tool to increase crop yield and red colour in blood orange fruit
Provisionally accepted
Fernando Garrido-Auñón
Jenifer Puente-Moreno
María Emma García Pastor
Zapata J Pedro
Domingo Martínez-Romero
María Serrano*
Daniel Valero Garrido- Miguel Hernández University of Elche, Elche, Spain
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Blood oranges are very appreciated by consumers due to its attractive peel and juice red colour and their antioxidant and health-beneficial properties. However, increase in temperatures due to climate change compromises anthocyanin biosynthesis depreciating their market value. Brassinosteroids (BRs) are plant hormones with important effects in plant adaptation to environmental stresses. The present experiment aimed to evaluate the effects of tree foliar treatments with different 24-epibrassinolide (24-BL) concentrations (0.01, 0.1, and 1 µM) on crop yield and fruit quality properties of 'Sanguinelli' blood orange, with special emphasis on anthocyanin content in peel and juice. Results of two-year experiments (2021-2022 and 2022-2023, carried out in Alicante, Spain) showed that 24-BL treatments improved total crop yield. Fruit quality properties, such as firmness, total soluble solids and titratable acidity were also enhanced as well as red colour in flavedo and juice, due to enhanced total and individual anthocyanin concentrations. The greatest improvements were recorded at 0.1 µM 24-BL treatment, in which the enhanced peel colour led to a 41 % increase in yield of commercial fruit with respect to control trees which would have important beneficial impact on growers' profit. In addition, the consumer acceptance would increase by 24-BL, since red colour is the most important parameter valued by consumers in blood orange, as well as their health beneficial effects by enhancing total anthocyanins and phenolics
Keywords: Citrus sinensis, 24-epibrasinolide, Anthocyanin, Commercial quality, Elicitation, phenolics, Soluble solids, acidity
Received: 26 Jun 2025; Accepted: 31 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Garrido-Auñón, Puente-Moreno, García Pastor, Pedro, Martínez-Romero, Serrano and Valero Garrido. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: María Serrano, Miguel Hernández University of Elche, Elche, Spain
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