Studies On Botanical Characters And Fruit Quality Of Main Cultivars Of Chaenomeles Spp. In Shandong Province

Chaenomeles spp. has greatly wild cultivars resources, variations and favorable exploitation perspective, with long cultivating history in China. The botanical character, fruit nutrition and fruit aroma were systematically analysed and studied using the main cultivars of Chaenomeles sinensis and Chaenomeles speciosa in Shandong Province as materials. The aims are to provide the basis for breeding and industrial exploitation of Chaenomeles spp. germplasm in Shandong Province. The main results are as follows:(1) In the botanical character, there are great differences between C. sinensis and C. speciosa, and fine distinctions among their respective cultivars. According to sixteen morphological characters, cluster analysis results of twenty main cultivars of Chaenomeles spp. in Shandong Province shows that they can be divided into two groups at euclidean distance of 1.058, one group is C. speciosa and another group is C.sinensis. At euclidean distance of 0.743, C. speciosa group can be futher divided into two cultivar groups of strong flavour type (including C. peciosa'Yipinxiang'and'Jinxiang') and light flavour type (including C.speciosa'Luofu','Changjun','Hongxia','Yufo'and'Aoxing'), and C.sinensis group also can be further divided into two cultivar groups of large fruit type (including C.sinensis'Yulan'and'Douqing') and medium-small fruit type (including'Xipi','Shenghua','Shougua','Foshou','Jinpingguo','Dajinpingguo','Dashizitou','Xiaoshizitou','Chenxiang','Hongyun'and'Keshi'). And the classification index of the main Chaenomeles spp. cultivars in Shandong Province was constructed.(2) The water, protein, total sugar, total acid, fiber, vitamin C contents and the ratio of sugar/acid in the fruits of main cultivars of Chaenomeles spp. fell within the range of 69.30%~91.53%, 0.25%~1.46%, 1.53%~3.78%, 0.48%~3.92%, 1.21%~7.24%, 9.86~276mg/100g and 0.61~5.84. The general nutrient compositions were significantly different among the main cultivars. Correlation analysis result showed that there was a greatest correlation between protein and fiber. The content of amino acid in the fruits of main cultivars of Chaenomeles spp. was low, within 197~801mg/100g. But the amino acid categoties were complete except that Chaenomeles speciosa had no Met and the amino acid pattern was good through AAS and EAAI test. There were great significant difference among the contents of Cu,Fe,Na,Mn,K,Ca,Mg in the fruit of main cultivars of Chaenomeles spp.. In all the seven mineral elements, the content of K was richest and the content of Mn was least.(3) Principal component and cluster analysis result showed that the nutritive types of the fruit of main cultivars of Chaenomeles spp. were almost the same. The order of the nutrient quality of these cultivars based on grey related degree analysis was'Shougua'>'Jinpingguo'>'Shenghua'>'Chenxiang'>'Dajinpingguo'>'Hongyun'>'Xiaoshizitou'>'Dashizitou','Douqing'>'Yulan'>'Keshi'>'Hongxia'>'Xipi','Luofu'>'Aoxing','Jinxiang'>'Changjun'>'Yufo'>'Yipinxiang'.(4) By GC/MS analysis technology 169 volatile compounds, belong to seven categories, were identified from the twelve C. sinensis cultivars, the cultivars including'Xipi','Douqing','Yulan','Shenghua','Dashizitou','Xiaoshizitou','Jinpingguo','Dajinpingguo','Hongyun','Keshi','Shougua'and'Chenxiang'. Of them, alcohols, esters and aldehydes were the major constituents. There were 6 compounds shared with all the twelve cultivars, and they were Ethyl alcohol, Pentanoic acid, 3-methyl-4-oxo-, Acetic acid, butyl ester, Butanoic acid, 2-methyl-, ethyl ester, Diethyl Phthalate and 2,4-Decadienal, (E,E)-. For C. sinensis, Ethyl alcohol, Pentanoic acid, 3-methyl-4-oxo- and 2,4-Decadienal, (E,E)- were the main volatile. And some unique and high relative content volatives, playing an important role in the formation of specific aroma of different C. sinensis cultivars, were detected from most cultivars. There were significant difference between volatile, relative contents and volatile categories in the different C. sinensis cultivars.(5) Based on the cluster analysis of the volatives, C. sinensis cultivars in Shandong can be divided into six groups. The first group only includes'Xipi', the second group includes'Douqing','Dashizitou'and'Shougua', the third group includes'Yulan'and'Shenghua', the forth group includes'Xiaoshizitou'and'Shougua', the fifth group includes'Hongyun'and'Chenxiang', the sixth group includes'Dajinpingguo'and'Keshi'.(6) The evaluation system of ornamental-processing–nutritional- aroma quality for Chaenomeles spp. culticars in Shandong Province was initially established, It provides a basis for screening of specific cultivars and selection breeding of fine varieties in the resources of Chaenomeles spp. culticars.