engleski

The perspective of Croatian old apple cultivars for juice production

Recently, consumer demand for traditional ‘old’ apples and their products is increasing as they follow the trend of consuming natural foods without added pesticides and additives. Unfortunately, old orchards are decaying lately, so more and older apple varieties are being lost. New knowledge and research on old apple varieties would strengthen the market for these fruits and their products, prevent the loss of this valuable genetic material, and contribute to greater biodiversity to promote health and overall well- being. Sweet and sour tastes are among the most important sensory characteristics that determine consumer preference for apples and apple juices. These depend largely on the content and compositional profile of soluble sugars and organic acids and, more importantly, on the balance between organic acids and sugars reflected in the sugar/acid ratio. In view of this, the objective of this study is to determine and compare the pH, total acids, individual sugars and sugar/acid ratio of five commercial and ten old apple varieties. The results obtained using chromatographic (HPLC) method showed that the main sugars in all apple varieties were fructose (56.14-101.43 g/L), followed by sucrose (31.25- 78.34 g/L) and glucose (9.72-33.89 g/L). The pH ranged from 3.04 to 3.31 for old and from 3.14 to 3.69 for commercial apple cultivars. ‘Wagener’ had the highest content (0.19 g mL-1) of total acids, while ‘Fuji’ had the lowest (0.07 g 100 mL-1). The sugar/acid ratio showed that all old apple cultivars had an optimal ratio for juice production, making them a desirable cultivar for juice production.

old apple cultivars ; fructose ; glucose ; sucrose ; pH ; total organic acids

nije evidentirano