International Journal of Advances in Science Engineering and Technology, ISSN: 2321-9009, Vol-4, Iss-3, Spl. Issue-2 Sep.

-2016

SOME FRUIT CHARACTERISTICS OF WILD POMEGRANATE

(Punicagranatum L.) GENOTYPES FROM SOUTHERN ANATOLIA
REGION IN TURKEY
EBRU SAKAR

Harran University Agricultural Faculty Department of Horticulture Sanliurfa, Turkey

E-mail: ebru.sakar09@gmail.com

Abstract- In this study, the fruits of ten wild grown pomegranate genotypes were sampled from Mardin province and
compared to standard cultivar ‘Hicaznar’ for some fruit characteristics including fruit mass, shape index, calyx length, peel
thickness, aril yield, juice yield, soluble solid content, titratable acidity, total phenolic content, antioxidant activity and total
anthocyanin content. We found a wide variation for most of the searched characteristics both in wild genotypes and between
wild genotypes and cv. ‘Hicaznar’. The average fruit mass ranged from 138-204 g among wild genotypes and cv. ‘Hicaznar’
had 407 g fruit mass. The results showed that in general wild genotypes had lower aril and juice yields than cv. ‘Hicaznar’
but they have higher total phenolic content and antioxidant activity than cv. ‘Hicaznar’.

Keywords- Pomegranate, Biological activity, Fruit properties, Wild material

I. INTRODUCTION being the most common), aril color (ranging from

Pomegranate belongs to Punicaceae family and it
contains only two species, PunicagranatumL. and
PunicaprotopunicaBalf. f. 1882. Punicaprotopunicais
endemic to the Socotra Island (Yemen) and is the
only congeneric relative of P. granatumspecies
currently is cultivated1.
The pomegranate is an ancient fruit with a wealthy
history in legend, symbol, art, medicine and religion.
It is grown mainly in Mediterranean and Asia
countries including Spain, Turkey, Morocco, Egypt,
Israel, Tunisia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Pakistan,
Afghanistan, India, China. Among these countries,
India, Iran, China and Turkey are main producer
countries2,3.
A high number of scattered pomegranate trees and
shrubs on the borders of or within other fruit orchards
are reported in other Mediterranean countries,
including Greece, Croatia, Albania, Bosnia
Herzegovina, and Montenegro, where the fruit is very
popular in local markets. Pomegranate is cultivated in
Central Asia and to some extent in the USA
(California), Russia, and Japan for fruit production,
and it is also grown as an ornamental tree in East
Asia3.
Turkey is one of the native lands of the pomegranate,
which has been cultivated mainly in the
Mediterranean, Aegean and Southern Anatolia and
Northeast part of Turkey since ancient times.
Numerous wild, semi-domesticated and cultivated
pomegranate plants are well adapted to different
agro-ecological conditions in the country4.
There is great variability among pomegranate
genotypes grown in different parts of Turkey in terms
of fruit characters such asfruit size, skin color
(ranging from yellow to purple, with pink and red
white to red), hardness of seed, maturity, juice
content and its acidity, sweetness, and astringency3,5.
These variations are more visible in local genotypes
naturally grown in different parts of Turkey.
In Turkey, particularly in southern Anatolia region,
pomegranate sauce (Turkish: narekşisi) is used as a
salad dressing, to marinate meat, or simply to drink
straight. The people believe that wild and local
pomegranates have better quality properties for
pomegranate sauce production3.
Recent years have seen increased interest on the part
of consumers, researchers, and the food industry into
how food products can help maintain health; and the
role that diet plays in the prevention and treatment of
many illnesses has become widely accepted.
At the present time, considerable importance is given
to functional foods, which, in principle, apart from
their basic nutritional functions, provide
physiological benefits and play an important role in
disease prevention or slow the progress of chronic
diseases. There has been a virtual explosion of
interest in the pomegranate as a medicinal and
nutritional product because of its multifunctionality
and its great benefit in the human diet as it contains
several groups of substances that are useful in disease
risk reduction. As a result, the field of pomegranate
research has experienced tremendous growth2,3,4
Pomegranate fruit has valuable compounds in
different parts of the fruit whose functional and
medicinal effects such as antioxidant, anticancer and
anti-atherosclerotic effects have been confirmed.
Pomegranate juice is nutritionally an important
beverage since it is consumed frequently for its
phenolic compounds (such as anthocyanins, ellagic
acid, phytoestrogenic flavonoids and tannins).

Some Fruit Characteristics of Wild Pomegranate (Punicagranatum L.) Genotypes From Southern Anatolia Region in Turkey

146
International Journal of Advances in Science Engineering and Technology, ISSN: 2321-9009,
The aim of this study is to determine the some fruit
characteristics in wild pomegranate genotypes.
II. DETAILS EXPERIMENTAL
2.1. Materials and procedures
The study was conducted in Mardin province, Turkey
in 2014. Firstly, the spots of naturally grown wild
pomegranates were identified. The fruits were
harvested at maturity phase and the harvested fruits
were immediately taken into sample cups to prevent
moisture loss, transferred to laboratory and stored at -
20 C0 until analyses. The samples were subjected to
analyses as quickly as possible.
Ten fruits from each genotype were randomly
chosenand measured. Data were collected on physical
including fruit mass (g), calyx length (mm), peel
thickness (mm), aril yield (%), fruit juice yield (%)
and chemical including soluble solid content (SSC
%), total acidity (TA, %).
Total phenolic content expressed as mg GAE per 100
g fresh fruit, total anthocyanins mg cyanidin 3-
glucoside equivalent per 100 g fresh fruit and
antioxidant activity (DPPH, %), respectively.
The wild genotypes were each given an MAR
(Mardin province in the region) number. Fruit mass
was measured by digital balance. Peel thickness was
determined in mm by digital caliper.
Flesh parts of fruit samples were used to assess the
soluble solid content (SSC), titratable acidity, total
phenolic content, antioxidant activity and total
anthocyanin content. Soluble solid contents (SSC)
were determined by extracting and mixing one drops
of juice from the each fruit into a digital
refractometer and displayed as %. Titratable acidity
was determined according to procedure of AOAC6.
For extraction, an aliquot of aril slurry was extracted
with buffer containing acetone, water and acetic acid
(70:29.5:0.5 v/v) for 1 h in the dark. Total phenolic
content (TPC) was determined using the colorimetric
Folin–Ciocalteu method7. Antioxidant activity
determined by DPPH method and the procedure
described by Brand-Williams, Cuvelier and Berset8
was followed. Total anthocyanin content was
estimated by Giusti and Wrolstad9.
2.2. Statistical Analysis
Statistical analysis of data was done according to
SPSS using statistical software. Data were analyzed
by Statistical Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and
differences among means were determined for
significant at P<0.05 using LSD test.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
As shown in Table 1 and 2, there were statistical
differences (p<0.05) between wild pomegranate
Some Fruit Characteristics of Wild Pomegranate (Punicagranatum L.) Genotypes From Southern Anatolia Region in Turkey
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Vol-4, Iss-3, Spl. Issue-2 Sep.-2016
genotypes and also between wild genotypes and cv.
‘Hicaznar’ in terms of most of the physico-chemical
properties (Table 1 and 2).
Wild pomegranates showed fruit mass between 138 g
(MAR-05) and 204 g (MAR-01), respectively. The
national cultivar ‘Hicaznar’ had fruit mass 407 g.
This result indicating that cv. ‘Hicaznar’ had 2-2.5
folds higher fruit mass than wild genotypes.
When we look at inside of pomegranate fruits, aril
and juice yield of wild genotypes were between
35.8% (MAR-04) and 42.6% (MAR-07);55.4%
(MAR-01) and 66.1% (MAR-06) (Table 1). The
cultivar ‘Hicaznar’ had 57.4% and 71.9% aril yield
and juice yield, respectively.
It is clear that cultivated pomegranates generally had
higher fruit mass, aril and juice yield that those
characteristics was improved in pomegranate
domestication process. Al-Said et al.10reported big
differences among the pomegranate cultivars and
wild pomegranates both aril yields and fruit mass.
They reported average 187 g fruit mass in wild
pomegranate and between 390-424 g fruit mass in
pomegranate cultivars. On the basis of aril and kernel
texture, cv. Hicaznar may be considered more
suitable for fresh consumption while all wild
genotypes will be more suited for juice extraction due
to their ‘hard’ seed texture. Overall, these results
indicate that the ten wild pomegranate genotypes and
cv. ‘Hicaznar’ can be classified into two groups of
‘soft’ (cv. ‘Hicaznar’; low seed hardness and
toughness) and ‘hard’ (all wild genotypes; high seed
hardness and toughness). High juice content is a
desirable attribute in pomegranate production. There
were moderately significant differences in the juice
content of the wild and cultivated pomegranates, with
cv. ‘Hicaznar’ having the highest amount of juice
than the wild genotypes (Table 1). Further
examination of the aril toughness and juice content of
pomegranate genotypes suggested that genotypes
which have lower aril toughness contained more juice
per unit mass of aril. This information could be useful
in the early screening of existing wild genotypes,
particularly for juice production.
Shape index, calyx length and peel thickness of wild
genotypes were between 0.89 (MAR-04)-1.01 (MAR-
07); 13.8 mm (MAR-06) and 15.1 mm (MAR-01);
3.9 mm (MAR-07)-4.2 mm (MAR-03). The cultivar
‘Hicaznar’ had 1.04, 22.4 mm and 4.0 mm shape
index, calyx length and peel thickness, respectively
(Table 1).
Soluble solid content (SSC) of wild pomegranate
genotypes were between 13.8 % (MAR-02) and
15.4% (MAR-08) indicating a little bit lower than cv.
‘Hicaznar’; however, the wild genotypes had
significantly high total acidity (between 2.11-2.33%)
International Journal of Advances in Science Engineering and Technology, ISSN: 2321-9009, Vol-4, Iss-3, Spl. Issue-2 Sep.-2016

than cv. ‘Hicaznar’ (Table 2). Low sugar and high Table 1. Pomological characteristics of wild
titratable acidity of fruit juice in wild genotypes, pomegranates
resulting in a lower sugar:acid ratio or maturity index
(SSC:TA) and classified all wild pomegranates as
sour taste. However cv. ‘Hicaznar’ classified as
sweet-sour. This very low sugar:acid ratio explains
the characteristic ‘sour’ taste of the wild
pomegranates juice. The acidic taste and related
flavour are some of the important attributes of
pomegranate juice, which contribute to its strong
appeal in the food and beverage industry. In this
regard, the wild genotypes represents a diversity in
local pomegranate genetic resource with very low
sugar:acid ratio that is suited for formulation of a
wide range of food and beverage products.

Total phenolic content, antioxidant activity and total

anthocyanins in fruits of wild pomegranate genotypes
and cv. ‘Hicaznar’ are shown in Table 2. The amount
of total phenolic content (TPC) varied between 187
(MAR-05) and 211 (MAR-09) as mg gallic acid
equivalent (GAE) per 100 ml juice and total
anthocyanin content were between 13.8 (MAR-04)-
15.9 (MAR-07) as mg cyanidin 3-glucoside
equivalents/l of fruit juice among wild pomegranate
genotypes and was lower compared to cv. ‘Hicaznar’
(Table 2). Variability among wild genotypes and cv.
Hicaznar was great for antioxidant activity as well
(Table 2); MAR-09exhibits good antioxidant capacity
and is an effective scavenger of several reactive
oxygen species, primarily due to its high levels of
phenolic content.
The chemical composition of the fruits differs
depending on the cultivar, growing region, climate,
maturity, cultivation practice, and storage conditions.
Significant variations in total phenolics, SSC, acidity,
anthocyanin of pomegranates have been reported over
the years by various researchers4,5
Some studies previously conducted on pomegranate
bioactive content revealed that pomegranate arils are
very rich in terms of total phenolic content, total
anthocyanins and antioxidant activity3,10. It seems that
wild pomegranates are considered high-value plant
source of potent bioactive materials that grows
abundantly and freely in many regions of the Turkey.
CONCLUSIONS
The results indicated that wild pomegranates showed
significant variations in most of the physico-chemical
properties. Although the wild cultivar had
significantly the smallest fruit size, interestingly the
wild genotypes had similar amount of expressed juice
compared with the cv. ‘Hicaznar’ and high value of
bioactive content and antioxidant activity.
Table 2. Chemical and antioxidant characteristics
of wild pomegranates
SSC: Soluble Solid Content; TA: Titratable Acidity;
TPC: Total phenolic content
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