COMPOSITIONAL DIVERSITY IN FRUITS OF ROWANBERRY (Sorbus aucuparia L.) GENOTYPES ORIGINATING FROM SEEDS

Turkey has great ecological, topological and geographical diversity within the country and this diversity has contributed not only to a high genetic diversity, but has also allowed the successful introduction and cultivation of a great number of fruit tree taxa. Turkey is also known to have a great richness of wild edible fruits with regard to variety and biological diversity. Rowanberry or mountain ash (Sorbus aucuparia L.) is one of the wild edible fruits naturally found most parts of Turkey. Present study describes morphological (tree growth habit, fruit color) and biochemical fruit traits (vitamin C, organic acids, specific sugars, total phenolic content, total anthocyanin content, total antioxidant capacity) of 17 seed propagated rowanberry genotypes. We found significant differences among almost all studied parameters. The genotypes had diverse L, chroma and hue values, which found between 28.76-42.38%; 24.11-29.45% and 33.13-42.66%, respectively. Among sugars and organic acids, Glucose and Malic acid were dominant in rowanberry fruits, respectively. Total phenolic content, total anthocyanin content, vitamin C and antioxidant activity varied from 123-189 mg GAE per 100 g, 18-57 mg per 100 g, 25.6-40.2 mg per 100 g and 3.36-6.92 mM trolox equivalent per 100 g of fresh weight (FW) basis. Results suggest using rowanberry fruits in production of functional foods with high biologically active properties.