Morphological and Biochemical Fruit Characteristics and Their Relationship with Organoleptic Attributes in Some Native and Introduced Pear (Pyrus communis L.) Cultivars of Iran

In the present study, seven native and five introduced pear (Pyrus communis L.) cultivars were evaluated for fruit morphological traits and biochemical characteristics including total soluble solids, total titratable organic acids, acidity of juice, sclereid cell density and size, ascorbic acid and organoleptic attributes. The results showed that in fruit morphological evaluations, the most important distinguishing traits were general shape and fruit size, length: diameter ratio, position of maximum diameter, fruit side profile, background color and size of lentils in ground color, size of over color area and the characteristics of fruit stalk. Also, three very similar cultivars, Coscia, Louis Bonne and Spadona, showed that these similarities has caused synonym and homonym names for them in some nurseries. However, they were distinguishable by the fruit characteristics including size, thickness and curvature of stalks. Total soluble solids contents of fruit varied from 14 to 17.4%, and the lowest was observed in Beurre Giffard cultivar and the highest in Felestini. Total titratable acid content of the fruit also varied between 3.4 mg g-1 of fresh weight in cv. Dargazi, cv. Louis Bonne and cv. Spadona and 11.4 mg g-1 of fresh weight in cv. Domkaj. In general, the highest overall score of fruit quality in organoleptic evaluations belonged to cv. Louis Bonne, which due to its excellent quality at the ripening time and other characteristics such as compatibility with the clonal rootstocks and fire blight tolerance has become the most popular commercial pear cultivar in Iran, in recent years.