Introduction. Rambutan (Nephelium lappaceumL.) is a kind of tropical fruit with high commercial value ininternational trade. However, harvested rambutan fruits suffer from ashort shelf life and show rapid postharvest deterioration problems dueto spintern browning and flesh decay. Materials andmethods. Rambutan fruit (cv. ‘Baoyan 5’) were harvestedin 2009 and 2010. Changes in some chemical components and thephysiology of fruits were investigated at different storagetemperatures (25 °C and 10 °C) and with different packing materials(regular low-density polyethylene and anti-moisture polyethylenebags). Results and discussion. Changes in the developmentof the browning index, and contents of total soluble solids,titratable acidity and vitamin C greatly decreased during lowtemperature storage (10 °C); moreover, low temperature storage (10 °C)could maintain a significantly higher level of superoxide dismutaseactivity and lower values of malondialdehyde and cell membranepermeability. The effects of packing material were different accordingto the different storage temperatures. At 10 °C, the beneficialeffects of anti-moisture polyethylene bags on fruit quality andphysiology were observed. However, at 25 °C, fruit packed with regularlow-density polyethylene proved to be of better quality than thosepacked with anti-moisture polyethylene bags. Conclusion.The overall results suggest that packing with anti-moisturepolyethylene bags and storage at 10 °C were the most suitableconditions to maintain quality and to extend the storage life oframbutan fruit.