Phytochemical characterization in traditional and modern apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.) cultivars – Nutritional value and its relation to origin

Abstract There has been an increasing number of apricot cultivars release by breeders in many countries, but there is still a lack of the phytochemical profile of most genotypes. The present work aimed the fruit phytochemical characterization of eight traditional and modern apricot cultivars originated from Greece (‘Bebecou’, ‘Diamantopoulou’, ‘Neraida’, ‘Tyrvi’) and France (‘Kioto’, ‘Farhial’, ‘Farely’, ‘Farbaly’). All studied cultivars harvested at commercial maturity met the standard criteria for consumer acceptance, but showed a high variation for the most of their phytochemicals traits. ‘Neraida’ exhibited the highest content of sucrose and ‘Kioto’ of citric acid. The traditional Greek apricots ‘Bebecou’ and ‘Diamantopoulou’ exhibited intermediate to low values for the most attributes examined. Cultivars originated from France showed by 6-fold higher averaged sorbitol content than those originated from Greece. Total antioxidant capacity and concentrations of total phenolics and flavonoids were pronounced in ‘Tyrvi’ and ‘Farhial’, whereas of total carotenoids and β -carotene in ‘Farely’ and ‘Farbaly’. ‘Bebecou’, ‘Diamantopoulou’ and ‘Kioto’ had by 6-fold higher averaged β -cryproxanthine content compared to the rest cultivars. The hierarchical clustering analyses distinguished and grouped clearly all cultivars and could be proposed as a screening tool for planning future breeding schemes aiming to cover the consumer demand for foods with high nutritional value as well as the need of producers for extension of apricot marketing duration using genotypes with different ripening periods.