Agro-Morphological and Biochemical Characterization of Wild <i>Prunus spinosa</i> L. Subsp. <i>dasyphylla</i> (Schur) Domin Genotypes Naturally Grown in Western Black Sea Region of Turkey

Abstract

In this study, agro-morphological, sensory and biochemical characteristics of 23 plum genotypes belonging to Prunus spinosa L. subsp. dasyphylla (Schur) Domin growing wild in the West Black Sea Region in Turkey were investigated. Agro-morphological, sensory and biochemical properties of genotypes were highly different from each other. Principal component analysis was performed to determine the correlation between these properties and genotypes. The variation in the study was determined to be 63.5% in agro-morphological properties, 53.8% in organic acids and 46% in phenolic compounds. In terms of fruit weight, 14BLM08 genotype (38.42 g) was determined to be superior to other genotypes. The fruit firmness value, which is important in the storage of fruits, was recorded as the highest in the 14BLM14 genotype (9.07 kg/cm2). Chlorogenic acid was higher than the other phenolic compounds and the highest value was obtained in the 14BLM20 (11.45 mg/kg) genotype. It was recorded that the value of malic acid, which is the major organic acid of the plums, varied between 269.65–1294.64 mg/100 g. Genotypes showed diverse vitamin C content, and the highest value was found in the 14BLM18 genotype as 54.42 mg/100g. Each genotype showed superiority according to the type of traits, and thus breeders may have used these genotypes as the superior ones for specific plum breeding purposes. In addition, these genotypes could be satisfactorily used in domestication.

Keywords

• plum
• wild genotypes
• phenolic compounds
• organic acids
• physicochemical properties