Abstract
Knowledge about diversity of local apple cultivars is particularly important and helps to ensure that specific cultivars are available when and where farmers need them. The phenolic content, organic acids and sugars were investigated in the four historical apple cultivars (‘Aslik’, ‘Cebegirmez’, ‘Bey Elmasi’ and ‘Arapkizi’) grown in Van province, located in Eastern Anatolia, Turkey. In the study, ellagic acid (63.034 mg per 100 ml) was found to be higher than other phenolic compounds and followed by vanilic acid, caffeic acid and routine, respectively. When examined the apple cultivars, it has been found that the ‘Bey Elmasi’ cultivar has the highest content of six phenolic acids (chlorogenic, ferulic, o-coumaric, p-coumaric, catechin and quercetin). The organic acid contents were as follows: malic>fumaric>succinic>citric>tartaric among cultivars. ‘Arapkizi’ cultivar possessed the highest value of four organic acids except of tartaric acid. It was determined that fructose was the major sugar for all apple cultivars. There was a positive correlation among gallic, ellagic acid and routine. Similarly, the positive correlation was observed among malic, fumaric and succinic acid. However the negative correlation between citric acid and all sugars was observed. As a result, ‘Bey Elmasi’ and ‘Arapkizi’ cultivars with higher phenolic content, ‘Arapkizi’ cultivar with higher organic acid content and ‘Aslik’ cultivar with higher sugar content comes to the foreground. Results indicated the importance of local apple germplasm to use of them for future apple breeding activities to increase inner quality.
Highlights
Anatolia is accepted the homeland of many wild, wild edible and cultivated fruit species (Kamiloglu et al, 2009; Tosun et al, 2009; Ercisli et al, 2012; Canan et al, 2016; Caliskan et al, 2017)
It was determined that the main phenolics were ellagic acid, followed by vanillic acid, routine and caffeic acid in historical apple cultivars (Tables 1, 2, 3, Fig. 1)
Cultivar came into prominence the organic acid and phenolic contents
Summary
Anatolia is accepted the homeland of many wild, wild edible and cultivated fruit species (Kamiloglu et al, 2009; Tosun et al, 2009; Ercisli et al, 2012; Canan et al, 2016; Caliskan et al, 2017). Anatolia has rich apple genetic resources including mostly historical cultivars selected by humans among wild populations for centuries. There are hundreds historical apple cultivars distributed different agroclimatic conditions in Turkey. This kind of richness gives the choice of different uses of them for the breeders (Kaya and Balta, 2013). In addition Turkey is an important apple producer in the world besides the rich apple genetic resources. World apple production is more than 84 million tons. Turkey produces around 3.0 million tons and takes fourth place after China (40 million), United States (5 million) and Poland (3.1 million) (FAO, 2017)
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