Post harvest morphological and chemical properties of some apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.)
Fateh Aljane, Naceur Haj Ahmed and Ali Ferchichi
Abstracts Book, 6th International Postharvest symposium, 8-12 April 2009, Antalya, Turkey. 256 pages.
2009
บทคัดย่อ
Apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.) is a common fruit tree species, mainly in the temperate region. It is an important economic plant in Tunisia. Apricot in one of the important cultivated fruit trees in Tunisian coastal oasis. Many clones and accessions were cultivated; some of them stemmed from seeds. An important heterogeneity was revealed. Morphological and chemical characteristics of ten apricot varieties cultivated in this oasis were presented in this study. Six quantitative and 15 qualitative characters of fruit such as harvest maturity, weight, length, diameter, shape, external colour, firmness of flesh, stone size, stone adherence, total soluble solids, titrable acidity, etc. according to descriptors previously established by Bioversity International (IPGRI, 1980). The results were subjected to variance and multivariate analyses (ACH, ACP and APC). A large diversity was revealed among accessions, probably due to genetic differences. Based on the morphological and chemical traits, these statistical analysis indicated that most of the varieties were clearly distinguishable, Ben Souleh variety for the fruit size characters and Bargoug Ahmar and Bargeug Asfar were separated for the highly acidity titrable. This study will have to be supplemented by the use of more precise techniques of analysis. It needs to be completed by chemical composition as well as the mineral, sugars and vitamins contents, in order to select the good varieties and develop this crop in these areas of Tunisia.