Phytochemicals in Fruits and Vegetables

Fruits and vegetables are the most important sources of phytochemicals. Phytochemicals use for both human diets and natural antimicrobial agents in food preservation. Their benefits for health are mainly due to high antioxidant activity. Antimicrobials of plant origin are known as secondary metabolites that could play a role not only individually or jointly against food‐borne pathogens but also contribute to food flavor. Phytochemicals have a strong effect on control and prevention of natural spoilage processes and growth of microorganisms, including pathogens causing food safety issues. Microorganisms are always associated with harvested plants and slaughtered animals, the basic unprocessed materials of the food industry. Since foods consumed by humans undergo several processing treatments, it is important to understand the effect of such treatments on the phytochemical composition of foods

Volatile Compounds of New Promising Dried Apricot (Prunus armeniaca L.) Genotypes

Turkey has rich wild apricot populations and all Turkish apricot cultivars were previously selected among wild apricots. On this background for apricot breeding, six new late flowering dried apricot genotypes were taken under study, along with wide spread cv. 'Hacihaliloglu'; all genotypes were examined in terms of volatile compounds using Headspace-Solid Phase Micro Extraction - Mass Spectrometry (HSSPME/GC/MS) techniques. The most important volatiles of apricot genotypes were aldehydes, alcohols, esters, terpenes, ketones and acids. Among these compounds, ethanol, hexanal, 3-carene, squalene, acetic acid, tetradecaonic acid, pentadecaonic acid, octadecaonic acid, n- hexadecaonic acid and 1-hdroxy-2-propanone were present in all genotypes studied at certain levels. In general, total concentrations of aroma compounds were higher in some promising genotypes under study than within 'Hacihaliloglu' cultivar, except total alcohol compound (53.33%). Volatile compounds, particularly esters, were the major contributors to fruity, floral and pleasant fruit flavours. The highest esters' compound contents were detected in 'N95' (9.2%) and 'N57' (2.18%) genotypes, while 'Hacihaliloglu' had 1.61% ester compounds. Lacton (γ-decalactone) was a key aroma compound of apricot. γ-decalactone was detected ranging between 0.4-1.13% in all genotypes, except cv. 'Hacihaliloglu'. The hereby obtained results showed that the volatile composition depended largely upon the apricot genotypes, moment of harvest, growing conditions and cultural applications that may all affect fruit quality. These results represent valuable starting points for apricot breeding programs

Quantitative Trait Loci Associated with Agronomical Traits in Strawberry

The cultivated strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa) is derived from Fragaria chiloensis and Fragaria virginiana species a few centuries ago, and it is one of the most preferred and consumed berries all over the world because of its a good source in terms of many nutritional elements. Strawberry has high genetic variability and adaptation to different environmental conditions due to its highly heterozygous nature. In the last decades, many farmers, breeders, researchers even consumers have started to focus on berry quality traits such as large fruit, uniform shape, high fruit firmness, high fruit sensorial quality (aroma contents), color, gloss, and resistance to pathogens. Thus, the development of novel strawberry cultivars or genotypes with high nutritionally quality traits has become one of the main aims in strawberry breeding programs. Biotechnological tools such as the identification of quantitative trait loci (QTL) and marker-assisted selection (MAS) are the most widely used technologies in fruit breeding programs for shortening the breeding period. Identification of QTLs in agnomical important traits are very valuable tools for early selection in strawberry breeding programs. This chapter is focused on QTL and marker assisted breeding studies in strawberry to date and provides new perspectives on molecular breeding in strawberry breeding

Comparison of Volatile Compounds of Fresh Boletus edulis and B. pinophilus in Marmara Region of Turkey

Boletus edulis and B. pinophilus are commonly consumed edible species of Boletus spp. in Turkey, which are also exported to some European countries. In this study, twenty-three volatile compounds were determined with Headspace Solid-Phase Microextraction / Gas Chromatography / Mass Spectrometry (HS-SPME/GC/MS) in both B. edulis and B. pinophilus. 1-octen-3-ol (79.75), 2-octen-1-ol (13.18), 1-octen-3-one (2.52), (E)-2-octenal (1.21) in B. edulis and 1-octen-3-ol (55.97), 2-octen-1-ol (13.55), 3-octanone (7.43), (E)-2-octenal (6.79), 1-octen-3-one (5.80) and 1,7,7-trimethyl-heptan-2-one (2.04), 2-propenoic acid (1.95) and 1,3-octadiene (1.75) in B. pinophilus were identified as main volatile aroma compounds (%), respectively. The present study is the first report on the volatile constituents of B. edulis and B. pinophilus collected from Turkey

Screening of High Temperature Tolerant Tomato Genotypes for Their Fruit Mineral Content

Agriculture is at the forefront of the sectors that will be most affected by climate change. It is inevitable that Turkey is exposed to the negative effects of climate change due to its geographical location. The development of new high temperature tolerant varieties is seen as an important economic measure in the adaptation to climate change. In this study, heat temparature tolerant tomato genotypes were investigated for their fruit mineral content. For this purpose, twenty tolerant tomatoes from the gene pool of the Çukurova University, Department of Horticulture the and two commerical cultivars were grown in the open field conditions during 2016 spring and summer periods in Adana, Turkey. Tomato fruits grown under control and high temperature stresses conditions were analyzed for phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, manganese, copper and zinc. According to heat stress effects on the tomato fruit mineral content, the macronutrients were ordered P, K, Ca, Mg from the least affected to the most affected. Moreover, the micro-nutrients were ordered Cu, Fe and Zn from the least affected to the most affected. In the present study heat tolerant tomato genotypes showed better performance and their mineral content most cases were higher than mineral content of the control trade cultivars

Sugar, Invertase Enzyme Activities and Invertase Gene Expression in Different Developmental Stages of Strawberry Fruits

The cultivated strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa) is octoploid (2n = 8x = 56) and has been the focused fruit species of which an increasing number of molecular and genetic research has been conducted in recent years. The aim of this study is to identify the relationships between sucrose metabolism, invertase enzyme activity and gene expression in four different fruit development periods (red, pink, green and white) of two commercially important strawberry varieties ‘Rubygem’ and ‘Fortuna’. The metabolite profiles (glucose, fructose, sucrose and total sugar content) of two varieties were discovered to be extremely similar. The highest amount of total sugar was found in red fruits, while the lowest was obtained from green fruits. Invertase represents one of the key enzymes in sucrose metabolism. The lowest invertase activity was obtained from the green fruits in ‘Rubygem’ and ‘Fortuna’ during four developmental periods. In these varieties, the amount of sucrose was found to be close to glucose and fructose and the lowest amount was detected in green period, while invertase activity was relatively high during red and pink periods and invertase gene expression was determined at high levels in both primers (St-4 and St-6) in the green period. The results of the study indicated that sugar content and invertase activity were positively correlated while enzyme activity and gene expression were negatively correlated. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.FBA-2020-12969Acknowledgments: The authors would like to thank the Cukurova University Scientific Research Projects (Turkey) (FBA-2020-12969) for financial support

Evaluation Possibilities of Different Parts of Pomegranate, a Historical Fruit and Its Effects on Health

Today, with the faster development of science and technology, people have started to pay more attention to healthy living and consuming foods that are beneficial for human health. In this context, the value given to fruit species has become increasingly important and the importance of plants whose seeds are consumed has increased, as well as colourful fruits and vegetables. Pomegranate is a fruit grown in many countries in the world, especially in the Mediterranean climate, and its economic value has been increasing in recent years. This fruit has gained great nutritional importance not only because of its flavour but also because it contains many antioxidant substances and phenolic compounds that are beneficial to human health. There are nearly fifty pomegranate varieties registered in our country. These pomegranate varieties range from sweet to sour, from small-in size to large in size, and from hard-seeded to soft-seeded in terms of skin colour and fruit colour. In recent years, the use of pomegranate parts such as peel, seeds, and flowers in cosmetics and food industry has become widespread and studies on the antioxidant properties of different parts of pomegranate have attracted interest. The aim of this review is to investigate the health effects of pomegranate fruit, different parts of pomegranate, and products made from pomegranate

Investigation on Yield, Fruit Quality and Plant Characteristics of Some Local, European and American Strawberry Varieties and their Hybrids

This study was conducted in 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 growing periods. Our local cultivar “Osmanlı”, European and American cultivars: “Camarosa”, “Sweet Charlie”, “Gaviota”, “Maya”, “Paros”, “Cilady”, “Cigoulette”, “Marlate”, “Sophie”, “Ciloe”, “Diamante” and “Camarosa” , hybrids from Italian breeding program: “92/340/3”, “MT/j24/2”, “MT99/20/1”, “MT99/121/9”, “MT99/163/14”, “MT99/163/19”and “MT99/163/22”, and hybrids from Turkish breeding program: “3”, “5”, “6”, “8”, “11”, “13” and “17” were used as plant material. Average yield per plant (g/plant), fruit weight (g) and some phenological plant characteristics such as plant growth shape, plant density, plant vigour, leaf size, leaf softness, beginning of flowering time and response to Fe chlorosis of experimental strawberry genotypes were evaluated. Hybrids MT J24/2 and MT 99/163/22 were found to be very satisfactory in terms of average yield/plant, and fruit weight respectively

Soil Preparation, Running Highbush Blueberry (<em>Vaccinium corymbosum</em> L.) Plantation and Biological Properties of Fruits

Due to the pro-health properties of highbush blueberry fruit, the interest in cultivation of this species has been growing significantly, which is evidenced by the current increase in world fruit production. Therefore, the aim of our review study is to present the impact of soil and climatic conditions and cultivation methods of Vaccinium corymbosum L. on fruit yield and quality in Central and Eastern Europe. In this region, one of the most important abiotic factors determining the yield level is the minimum temperature of the winter period and short-term increases in temperature, which are conducive to the damage to flower buds. Another factor determining the success of cultivation is soil. In addition, highbush blueberry has specific soil requirements, which result from its characteristic root structure. The adverse impact of soil factors can be mitigated to a certain extent by the use of mycorrhizal fungi. In this chapter, besides the cultivation conditions of V. corymbosum, the pro-health properties of fruits resulting from the presence of bioactive compounds such as polyphenolic compounds, flavonoids, especially anthocyanins, will be presented. Besides, factors, such as environmental conditions, degree of ripeness and variety, affect the content of bioactive substances