Morphological and Biochemical Characteristics of Fruit in some Pomegranate Cultivars in Climatical Conditions of Saveh

To evaluate some morphological and biochemical traits of pomegranate fruit, eleven commercial cultivars were assessed using 26 quantitative and qualitative traits. Analysis of variance showed that all evaluated traits, except peel and aril percent, were significantly different among cultivars showing variation in each trait. The highest antioxidant capacity was assessed in ‘Malase Shirin’, ‘Yousef Khani’, and ‘Shishekap’ cultivars. Analysis of simple correlation among traits showed positive and negative correlations among some of traits. Total phenol had a positive and significant correlation with antioxidant capacity, but there was no correlation between amount of anthocyanin and antioxidant capacity. Cluster analysis divided all cultivars in to five main groups. The groups were different in aril and fruit weight, TSS and TA traits. Total phenol was also effective in grouping. By factor analysis, effective traits were located in six main groups and accounted for 93.9 % of total variance. Fruit, aril, peel weight and volume of fruit juice in 100 arils were traits that constituted the first factor (PC1) and pH, EC, TA, antioxidant capacity and total phenol the second factor (PC2). Tri-plot analysis showed that ‘Shirine Shahvar’, ‘Naderi’ and ‘Binikaje Sabzevar’ cultivars were important for the first factor and ‘Shishekap’, ‘Malase Yazd’ and ‘Malase Torsh’ cultivars for the second factor. Generally, considering the main effective traits, ‘Malase Esfahan’, ‘Malase Shirin’, ‘Naderi’ and ‘Shirine Shahvar’ were located in one group, ‘Shishekap’, ‘Malase Torsh’, ‘Yosef Khani’, ‘Ashkezar’ and ‘Bini kaj’ in another group and ‘Pust Siahe Saveh’ in a separate group.