NCHU Course Outline

Course Name	(中) 園產品收穫後生理學(7086)
Course Name	(Eng.) Postharvest Physiology of Horticultural Products
Offering Dept	Department of Horticulture
Course Type	Elective	Credits	3	Teacher	Lan-Yen Chang
Department	Department of Horticulture/Graduate	Language	English	Semester	2026-FALL
Course Description	The course provides discussions of postharvest physiological and biochemical changes on the development and deterioration process of horticultural crops (fruit, vegetable and ornamental crops). The response of harvested organs and tissues on the postharvest environment will also be covered.
Prerequisites				self-directed learning in the course	Y

Relevance of Course Objectives and Core Learning Outcomes(%)

Teaching and Assessment Methods for Course Objectives

Course Objectives

Competency Indicators

Ratio(%)

Teaching Methods

Assessment Methods

At the end of the course, students should be able to:
1.Have a board knowledge about the physiological changes on fruits, vegetables and flowers of their development into an final marketable commodities.
2.Know the quality changes in biochemical aspects occur before and after harvest, and the way lead to the deterioration.
3.Be able to develop critical reasoning, judgment and communication skills; discussion on postharvest physiology issues via appropriate review of literature and independent preparation for presentations.

1.The capability of applying natural technology and biological knowledge

2.The capability of performing crop cultivation, production, and landscape design and using crop cultivation-, production-, and landscape design-related facilities

3.The capability of developing an experimental design and performing data analysis

4.To develop the skills of research and team work

5.To develop the capability of literature search and problem identification

6.To develop global perspectives and to understand recent trends in international technology development

7.To equip with the profession's ethical standards and social responsibilities

topic Discussion/Production

Exercises

Discussion

Lecturing

Attendance

Oral Presentation

Assignment

Quiz

Course Content and Homework/Schedule/Tests Schedule

Week	Course Content
Week 1	Course introduction; Contribution of Fruits and Vegetable to human
Week 2	Morphology and Anatomy; Photosynthesis
Week 3	Respiratory Metabolism
Week 4	Biology and Biochemistry of Ethylene
Week 5	Ripening and Senescence
Week 6	Transpiration and Water Relationship
Week 7	Carbohydrate; Organic Acids
Week 8	Lipids, Protein and Enzymes
Week 9	[Invited speaker] – TBD
Week 10	Texture, Flavors and Aromas
Week 11	Pigments, Phenolic Compounds and Vitamins
Week 12	Physiological Responses to Stress
Week 13	Physiological and Biochemical Effects of Controlled and Modified atmosphere
Week 14	Molecular Biology and Biotechnology of Horticultural Crops
Week 15	Oral presentation (I)
Week 16	Oral presentation (II)
self-directed learning	01.Participation in professional forums, lectures, and corporate sharing sessions related to industry-government-academia-research exchange activities. 02.Viewing multimedia materials related to industry and academia. 03.Preparing presentations or reports related to industry and academia.

Evaluation

Attendance + Quiz (40%):
11 different quizzes will be taken during week 3-9 & 11-14 at the beginning of the class (20 min, 9:10-9:30) and the range of the quiz will be the lecture of previous week (e.g. Quiz of Week 3 will be set based on the content of Week 2) and only 10 best scores will be counted. Regular attendance is expected. The attendance will also be scored if student take the quiz or not. For other weeks, roll will be taken randomly.
Oral Presentation (30%):
Each student is expected to do an oral presentation for 25 min, including 15-min presentation and 10 min discussion.
Any one regular research paper of SCI journal (e.g. Postharvest biology and technology; Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry; HortScience; Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science; Food chemistry; LWT; Food packaging and shelf life…etc) related to the topic from the lectures should be chosen for presentation.
Please discuss with the lecturer before 11/5 or 2 pts will be lost
Personal oral presentation will be judged by the lecturer and other students in class, which share 25% in total. The instructions on grading the presentation will be illustrated in details before the first oral presentation. Participation in discussions will account for 5%.
Assignments (30%):
1. Assignments of topic discussion (10%)
A few paragraphs from research papers or an entire research paper will be given with a few questions (3-4) during topic discussion. Students should sit in groups (3-4 people/group), read the articles within the group for each topic for 15-20 min and share the idea with the class for another 15-20 min. The draft of the answers to questions of each group should be written in brief and turned in at the end of class.
2. Assignment for self-directed learning (20%)
For self-directed learning part, students after the lectures for the previous weeks should be able to imagine the future of postharvest technology in human’s life. Please use one of the following keywords to search for a recent trend in postharvest innovation technology:
(1) Digital twins, (2) Robotic harvesting, (3) Nano-silver, (4) Electric field or pulse electric field, (5) Sustainable package, (6) Ozone, and (7) E-beam.
Please turn in a report (3 pages, front page excluded), DUE: 12/18, including:
(1) The introduction of the new technology (why the technology is developed? from where and when it starts?-History of the techonology)
(2) The mechanism (how it works, describing it by flow charts is highly recommended)
(3) The application or the trial example on the crops
(4) Conclusion and comments for the techniques (improvement suggestions? or the reason it worth developing this)
(5) Citation (Please follow APA style: Google ScholarCitationcopy APA)
* Plagiarism or copy from ChatGPT is prohibited!*
Report format: A4, Margins: Normal, Font: Calibri(body) 14 pts, Paragraph: Single line spacing, 8 pts for after paragraph and turn off “snap to grid when document grid is defined”.

Textbook & other References

Yahia, E. M., & Carrillo-Lopez, A. (Eds.). (2018). Postharvest physiology and biochemistry of fruits and vegetables. Woodhead publishing.
Wills, R. B. H., & Golding, J. B. (2016). Physiology and biochemistry. In Postharvest: an introduction to the physiology and handling of fruit and vegetables (pp. 34-62). Wallingford UK: CABI.

Teaching Aids & Teacher's Website

Slides by lecturer

Office Hours

By appointment

Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs(Link URL)

include experience courses：N

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Update Date, year/month/day：2026/09/07 16:33:14	Printed Date, year/month/day：2026 / 10 / 17
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