Changes in cell wall components and cell wall-degrading enzyme activities of postharvest eggplant fruits during softening were investigated.The main results were as follows.Firmness of eggplant flesh constantly declined during storage.Water-soluble pectin(WSP) content continuously increased 12 days after storage,and followed by quickly decreasing.Covalent pectin(CSP),semicellulose and cellulose contents decreased progressively.Pectinmethylesterase(PME),polygalacturonase(PG) and cellulase(CX) activities firstly increased and then decreased,and respectively reached maximum when stored to 6,9 and 12 days.β-Galactosidase(β-Gal) activity maintained at a high level and did not change obviously during storage.Analysis of correlation showed that the degradation of CSP,hemicellulose and cellulose was closely related to softening of postharvest eggplant fruit.PG and CX played an important role in the process of eggplant fruit softening.