ON.2/QREN/EU Project no.13198/2010 for financial support of this work, to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) and COMPETE/QREN/EU for financial support to CIMO (strategic project PEst-OE/AGR/UI0690/2011) and to REQUIMTE (PEst-C/EQB/LA0006/2011). J.C.M. Barreira and A.L. Antonio also thank to FCT, POPH-QREN and FSE for their grants (SFRH/BPD/72802/2010 and SFRH/PROTEC/67398/2010, respectively). Prof. A. Chmielewski, General Director of the Institute of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology, Warsaw, Poland, for allowing e-beam irradiations.
The present chestnut (Castanea sativa Miller) commercialization dynamics, including distribution to novel markets, demands suitable conservation technologies. Irradiation has been considered a promising alternative to chemical fumigation (legally forbidden and harmful for human health and environment) or heat treatments (technological difficulties and low efficiency). Following previous studies on the effects of irradiation in different chemical parameters, the present work aims to perform an evaluation of the effects of electron beam and γ-irradiation on the triacylglycerol profiles of fresh and stored chestnuts. An analysis of variance with type III sums of squares was performed using the general linear model procedure. As classification technique, a linear discriminant analysis using the stepwise procedure was also applied. Independently of irradiation type, samples irradiated with higher doses showed higher modifications in triacylglycerol profiles. In fact, samples irradiated with 1 and 3 kGy were clearly separated from the remaining groups in the linear discriminant analysis. The obtained results highlight the potential of triacylglycerol profiles as indicators of chestnuts irradiation. However, irradiation might be recommended as a suitable method for chestnuts preservation.
