Comparison of the important quality characteristics of red flesh apples and some Golab cultivars

This study was conducted to evaluate the quality of the red flesh apples and Golab cultivars. Two Iranian red flesh apples from Shahroud and four Golab cultivars as well as ‘Gala’ as control from Damavand were selected in Summer 2012. Fruit physical characteristics including length, diameter, fresh weight and dry weight, firmness, color and their parameters were evaluated for each cultivar. The measured chemical properties were including total soluble solids (TSS), titrable acidity (TA), TSS: TA, total phenol content (TPC) and 50 percent inhibitory activity of DPPH radical. Results showed that ‘Bekran’ and ‘Bastam’ red flesh genotypes had the highest dry weights (15.44 and 15.07 g, respectively). The highest and lowest firmness were in ‘Bekran’ red flesh and ‘Golab-e Kermanshah’ (5.65 and 2.82 N/mm2, respectively). The highest TPC was determined in two red flesh apples ‘Bekran’ and ‘Bastam’ (4481.01 and 4011.73 mg GAE/100 g FW, respectively). The lowest TPC was detected in ‘Atlasi’ (2596.05 mg GAE/100 g FW). The highest IC50 was observed in ‘Bekran’, ‘Golab-e Kermanshah’ and ‘Gala’. Despite the fact that Iran is a major producer of apple in the world, but it does not benefit of export. Growing cultivars with improved physicochemical properties can help our country to boost its apple export status.