Morphological and Biochemical Characterization of Diverse Strawberry Tree (Arbutus unedo L.) Genotypes from Northern Turkey

Halil Ibrahim Sagbas,Hafida Zitouni,Ivo Ondrasek,Sezai Ercisli,Gulce Ilhan,Tomas Necas,Hafida Hanine,Muhammad Akbar Anjum

doi:10.3390/agronomy10101581

Halil Ibrahim Sagbas, Hafida Zitouni + Show 6 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy10101581

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Abstract

Wild edible fruits have been used centuries by local people mainly for nutrition purposes and they have attracted the attention of researchers in the last decade throughout the world. Among wild edible fruits, the strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo) is widely distributed mainly in Mediterranean countries. However, the lack of information about strawberry tree genetic resources in Mediterranean countries is a major cause of its low exploitation by breeders. For a practical use and exploitation of the strawberry tree native germplasm, phenological, morphological, and biochemical characterization of the plant is essential. In this study, some important phenological, morphological, and biochemical characteristics of sixteen local strawberry tree genotypes were determined. Significant variations (p < 0.05) were observed in most of the investigated phenological, morphological, and biochemical traits of the genotypes. The genotypes were harvested between 2–21 November. The fruit weight and the number of fruits per cluster of the genotypes varied from 3.89 to 6.86 g and 3.61 to 7.94, respectively. Vitamin C and total dietary fiber contents of genotypes were found quite variable, ranging from 58 to 93 mg/100 g and 7.04 to 12.36 g/100 g, respectively. The fruits of the strawberry tree include mainly fructose and glucose rather than sucrose. Local strawberry tree genotypes are found to be promising for further valorization through horticultural characteristics for breeding. Some genotypes had significantly higher fruit weight, vitamin C concentrations, total dietary fiber, and total phenolic concentration and may be good selections for producing health products.

Highlights

Turkey is the world’s largest fruit producer after China (24 MT), India (99 MT), Brazil (40 MT), and USA (26 MT) with 24 MT of fruit production per year [1]
The region has great potential for cultivated fruits such as hazelnut, kiwifruit, persimmon, blueberry, and for wild edible fruits viz. Vaccinium, Cerasus, Fragaria, Eriobotrya, Mespilus, Morus, Cornus, Castanea, Diospyros, Arbutus, Rubus etc. that remained underexploited due to the lack of awareness of their potential, market demand, and value addition [8,9,10]. These underutilized fruits are propagated by seeds and traditionally used only by local inhabitants and traded locally in the Black Sea region and the fruits are sold on local markets and roadsides as fresh, dried, or processed [11,12]
The Black Sea region of Turkey has a large number of seed propagated strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo L.) genotypes that show great variability for most of the tree and fruit characteristics

Summary

Introduction

Turkey is the world’s largest fruit producer after China (24 MT), India (99 MT), Brazil (40 MT), and USA (26 MT) with 24 MT of fruit production per year [1]. Such a high fruit production is one of the main income sources in agriculture of the country. That remained underexploited due to the lack of awareness of their potential, market demand, and value addition [8,9,10] These underutilized fruits are propagated by seeds and traditionally used only by local inhabitants and traded locally in the Black Sea region and the fruits are sold on local markets and roadsides as fresh, dried, or processed [11,12]. The local community commonly consumes local fruits as a functional food and nutraceutical supplement [9]

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