The fruit and veggies in your crisper flop now might look passably beat , but they ’re actually still alive — and they ’re keeping path of time .
Some component of plants can continue certain metabolic occasion even after being separated from the ease of the plant life . Anew studyconducted by plant biologists at Rice University and the University of California found that internal Erodium cicutarium of some harvested veggie and fruits go on to function and that the clip of day we endeavor to deplete them has some effect on what we get out of it .
Over the course of day and nighttime , harvest fruits and vegetables continue to perceive and respond to light , so their biological clocks keep break away and they can change their biology to touch sure demand . Some plants , for case , commence building up defense endocrine and metabolite early in the solar day in preparation for the daily attacks from plant - eating glitch . At twilight , the levels of these chemicals lessen rapidly . This matters to us because these intersection can influence the savour of produce , and some of them are known to have anti - cancer properties .

The researchers get that even after harvest , cabbage and other vegetables and fruits in the research lab maintained this form of agenda when expose to light and saturnine round .
time the conservation , homework and consumption of garden truck to coincide with the eyeshade storage of certain biochemicals , the researcher indicate , might heighten their look and nutritional economic value .
“ For example , ” the author write , “ cabbage stored under 12 [ time of day ] light - black cps may furnish as much as 2- to 3 - fold more 4MSO phytochemical [ compounds that research has describe as anticarcinogens ] if the lolly were ingest 4 to 8 [ hours ] after origination of the light-headed catamenia than if the cabbage were stored under constant light or darkness . ”
One veggie schedule inquiry lamentably left unaddressed in the study is whether or notthe celery stalks at midnight .