Pomological and phytochemical evaluation of different cherry species: mahaleb (Prunus mahaleb L.), wild sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) and wild sour cherry (Prunus cerasus L.), sweet and sour cherry cultivars

Cherries are known as health friendly fruits due to their abundant phytochemical compositions. This study was conducted to determine phytochemical and pomological fruit properties of different cherry species including mahaleb (Prunus mahaleb L.), wild sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.), wild sour cherry (Prunus cerasus L.), two sweet cherries (‘Napoleon’ and ‘Starks Gold’) and one sour cherry (‘Kütahya’) cultivars. For this aim, together with various pomological traits, total phenolics and anthocyanin contents, antioxidant capacity, organic acids, sugars, were analyzed in fruits of relevant genotypes. Results of all examined traits significantly varied between genotypes. Mahaleb showed the highest TSS (30.17%), fructose (8.71 μg/g) and glucose (20.74 μg/g) contents. Wild sour cherry gave the highest antioxidant capacity (13.25 mmol TE/kg total weight), anthocyanin (351.0 mg Pg-3-glk/kg total weight), citric acid (0.56 μg/g) and malic acid (2.96 μg/g) contents. As a rootstock, mahaleb was found to be superior in some of the traits when compared to wild sweet cherry. Significant correlations were observed between various traits. Additionally, principal component analysis (PCA) revealed different relationships among the traits and evaluated genotypes.