Abstract:

Turkey has very rich potential in terms of wild edible fruit species, especially berries that grow naturally in different parts of the country as population or scattered shrubs. One of the most important wild edible fruits found in Turkey's flora is the European cranberrybush (EC). All EC plants are found as wild in nature and there are no commercial EC orchards in the country. In this study, a total of 22 seed propagated EC genotypes that naturally grown in the Akkışla district of Kayseri province located in the middle part of Turkey were assessed in terms of their morphological (fruit dimensions, fruit weight, the number of fruit per cluster, and cluster weight) and biochemical (soluble solids content, pH, and organic acids), bioactive (total phenolic content, total flavonoid content, and antioxidant activity) content in order to determine the superior ones. Fruit width, fruit length, fruit weight, cluster weight, and the number of fruit per cluster of 22 EC genotypes varied from 8.66 to 11.19 mm, 9.08 to 11.11 mm, 0.27 to 0.80 g, 8.50 to 55.20 g, and 23.00 to 81.40, respectively. Malic acid was the dominant organic acid in fruits of all investigated EC genotypes (12.177 g L-1 average of 22 genotypes), followed by citric acid (1.605 g L-1), oxalic acid (0.776g L-1), and ascorbic acid (65.18 mg 100 mL-1), respectively. In terms of phenolic acids, a stable order could not be determined, while chlorogenic acid has come to the fore in fruits of 17 genotypes as main phenolic acid, while gallic acid was the highest in fruits of 4 genotypes and protocatechuic acid was the highest in the remained 1 genotype and average values of 22 EC genotypes of these phenolic acids were 27.05 mg L-1, 23.50 mg L-1, and 16.50 mg L-1, respectively. Results indicated that seed propagated EC genotypes have variable morphological, biochemical, and bioactive traits that could be important to select cultivar candidates for future use at cultivation conditions. It is also important that characterization of 22 EC genotypes will add value for EC germplasm enhancement in Turkey.

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