Volume 62 Number 4 Article 6
Year 2008 Month 10
Title: U. P. Hedrick Student Paper Award 2008 Major Flavor Components in Some Commercial Cultivars of Japanese Plum
Authors: S.P. Singh and Z. Singh
Abstract:
Consumer acceptance of plum (Prunus salicina Lindell) depends mainly upon flavor, which is governed by the
sugar-acid blend.
We investigated changes in the concentrations of individual sugars and organic acids of three
cultivars of Japanese plum, ‘Blackamber’, ‘Amber Jewel’, and ‘Angeleno’, during their ripening after commercial
harvest.
These are, respectively, early-, mid-, and late-maturing cultivars.
High performance liquid chromatography
(HPLC) was used for qualitative and quantitative determination of individual sugars and organic acids
in the fruit flesh.
The cultivars differed in their relative amounts of fructose, glucose, sorbitol, and sucrose and
of organic acids (malic, shikimic and succinic, citric, tartaric and fumaric acid). Fructose was the major sugar
followed by glucose, sorbitol and sucrose.
Malic acid accounted for the major share of the total organic acids
followed by succinic, shikimic, and citric acids.
There were also traces of tartaric and fumaric acids.
The level
of individual or total sugars did not increase significantly during ripening.
But malic acid concentration, a key
contributor to total organic acids, declined for ‘Blackamber’ and ‘Amber Jewel’ at the ripe stage, thus increasing
the sugar:acid ratio towards improvement of fruit flavor.
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