ASSESSMENT OF FRUIT FLESH BROWNING IN ‘AMASYA’ APPLE CULTIVAR AND ITS TWO SELECTED SIBS

Abstract

Atay A. N. (2021). Assessment of fruit flesh browning in ‘Amasya’ apple cultivar and its two selected sibs.)- Genetika, Vol 53, No.3, 1133-1146. Post-cut internal flesh browning of apples is a major limitation to consumer acceptability as it causes to the unattractive appearance and consequential off-flavour for fresh fruit. The browning of apples is also essential for processed products such as fresh-cut, fruit juice, canned, frozen, and drying. In this work, internal flesh browning susceptibility was investigated in ‘Amasya’ apple cultivar and two superior sibs (named ‘109’ and ‘120’), of which female parent is ‘Amasya’, for both visually and objectively. Colour parameters of the cutting surface were measured every ten minutes during the first thirty minutes after slicing. The most rapid initial browning of fruit flesh occurred within the first ten minutes after the disruption in both sibs and ‘Amasya’. It was observed that ‘Amasya’ undergone significant colour change first, followed by ‘120’ in all the studied colour parameters, whereas ‘109’ did not brown significantly. Hence, it can be concluded that ‘109’ could be useful in the fruit processing industry thanks to the remarkable post-cut anti-browning properties. Valuable correlations were found between pH and the colour parameters of cutting surface in the thirty minutes after slicing. However, the colour change parameters were not or weakly correlated to other fruit attributes. The results of this study show the importance of the internal flesh quality of fruit in breeding programs to maintain quality.