Dietary Elements and Quality Parameters of 34 Old and Eight Commercial Apple Cultivars Grown at the same Site in South Tyrol, Italy.

Apple is one of the most widely produced and consumed fruits worldwide and hence, complete data of apple consumption are important for the human diet. Currently, a limited number of cultivars dominate the market, while many others, with a potentially higher nutritional value, are neglected by consumers. The present work reports the content of the dietary elements potassium (K), phosphorus (P), calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg) as well as the content of the macroelement nitrogen (N) of 34 old cultivars grown at the same site under identical conditions in South Tyrol, Italy. Their elemental composition was assessed along with quality paramenters such as fruit weight, firmness, and soluble solid content and total acidity at harvest and post storage. For selected cultivars, the measurements were performed over two or even thre different harvest years. Comparison with eight commercial cultivars chosen to represent the fruit currently dominating the market was performed.
Besides offering a valuable insight in the variation of dietary elements among old and commercial apple cultivars in up to three harvest years, this study, that complements current nutritional databases, recommends several old cultivars with high content of dietary elements for further study and eventual re-introduction in niche markets.

Keywords: Apple cultivars, Elemtal composition, Dietary elements, Macroelements, Biodiversity and nutrion, Fruit quality.

Publications

May 2017, Erwerbs-Obstbau (2017). doi:10.1007/s10341-017-0336-8

Dietary Elements and Quality Parameters of 34 Old and Eight Commercial Apple Cultivars Grown at the same Site in South Tyrol, Italy. Sara Agnolet, Flavio Ciesa, Evelyn Soini, Anna Cassar, Aldo Matteazzi, Walter Guerra, Peter Robatscher, Alberto Storti, Sa Published: 19-05-2017

Details

Activity type

Publication in technical journal

Activity work package

Performance of new fruit varieties

Activity number

Laimburg-WP2-A77

Activity contact

Walter Guerra
Laimburg Research Centre
Laimburg 6 - Pfatten
I-39040 Post Auer (BZ), Italy
[email protected]

Activity partner

Laimburg

Activity country

Italy

Last edit

19-10-2017