Abstract
Sour cherry fruits are a perfect source of polyphenols, including flavonols, phenolic acids and anthocyanins. According to the literature, organic fruits contain more bioactive compounds, especially polyphenols, compared to conventional fruits. Given that only one two-year experiment on the status of polyphenols in sour cherry fruits in an organic farm was previously conducted and found in the existing scientific literature, the aim of this study was to analyse and compare the concentration of bioactive compounds in organic and conventional sour cherries and to determine the effects of cultivation year and the proper cultivar. Four sour cherry cultivars (“Oblacińska”, “Kelleris 16”, “Pandy 103” and “Dobroceni Bötermo”) harvested in organic and conventional experimental orchards were assessed in this study. The dry matter and polyphenol contents in the fruits were determined. We observed a significantly higher concentration of dry matter in organic samples only in 2015 and 2017. In the case of total polyphenols, including phenolic acid (2015 and 2017–2018), and total flavonoids, including quercetin-3-O-rutinoside, the higher concentration was found in 2016 and 2018. Two individual anthocyanins were identified in sour cherry fruits. Cyanidin-3-O-rutinoside is the predominant form in the pool of total anthocyanins.
Highlights
Sour cherries are one of the most popular stone fruits in Europe
In 2017, we observed the highest and significant amount of dry matter in conventional fruits (p = 0.0087); in 2018, no differences were noted between farming systems (Tables 1–4)
The increased level of dry matter content in organic fruits can be explained by the “water swelling” phenomenon which is characteristic of conventional fruits
Summary
Sour cherries are one of the most popular stone fruits in Europe. According to the Eurostat database, Poland was the largest conventional sour cherry producer in Europe in 2018 (27.97 thousand ha and 200.63 thousand tonnes) followed by Turkey (22.00 thousand ha and 184.00 thousand tonnes) and Serbia (17.57 thousand ha and 128 thousand tonnes). Organic sour cherry production levels are much smaller, but Poland remains one of the largest producers. Sour cherries are one of the most important stone fruits produced by Polish farms. In 2018, Poland had 1.06 ha of organic sour cherry orchards that produced 707 tonnes (Eurostat database). Sour cherries are good sources of bioactive compounds in the human diet. The bioactive compounds mainly include polyphenols, such as flavonols, phenolic acids, and anthocyanins [6,7,8]
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