Multifrequency EPR study on freeze-dried fruits before and after X-ray irradiation

X-, K- and Q-band EPR studies on lyophilized whole pulp parts of blue plum, apricot, peach, melon as well as achens and pulp separately of strawberry before and after X–ray irradiation are reported. Before irradiation all samples show in X band a weak singlet EPR line with g = 2.0030 ± 0.0005 , except melon, which is EPR silent. Immediately after irradiation all samples exhibit complex fruit-depending spectra, which decay with time and change to give, in ca. 50 days, an asymmetric singlet EPR line with g = 2.0041 ± 0.0005 . Only apricot pulp gave a typical “sugar-like” EPR spectrum. Singlet EPR lines recorded after irradiation in X -band are K- and Q-band resolved as typical anisotropic EPR spectra with g | | = 2.0023 ± 0.0003 and g ⊥ = 2.0041 ± 0.0005 . In addition, K- and Q-band EPR spectra of all samples show a superposition with the six EPR lines of Mn2+ naturally present in the fruits. The saturation behavior of the EPR spectra of achens of lyophilized and fresh strawberry is also studied. The differences in g factors of samples before and after X-ray irradiation might be used for the identification of radiation processing of fruits in the case of pulp and the differences in the EPR saturation behavior might be used for the achens of strawberry.