Environmental and geographical conditions influence color, physical properties, and physiochemical composition of pomegranate fruits

Abstract

The highest quality pomegranate necessitates a tropical or subtropical environment for proper growth and development. This study evaluated two pomegranate cultivars including Rabab Poost Ghermez Neyriz (RPGN) and Makhmal Malas Shahreza (MMS) for physical traits, biochemical properties, and juice quality in their native locations as well as other warm and arid regions during two growing seasons (2019–2020 and 2020–2021) in Iran. The results showed that cultivars with the maximum redness (a*) were more likely to originate in cooler climates, and the cultivar’s responses to changing climates were also different. According to pomegranate characteristics, cultivars in different regions had different fruit, aril, and skin weights. According to these findings, pomegranate fruits cultivated in other climates than the origin climate have a smaller edible fraction. The findings also demonstrate that pomegranate fruits cultivated in mountain climates have more significant biochemical parameters such as total phenol, anthocyanin content, antioxidant capacity, and vitamin C than those produced in desert environment settings. The increased titratable acidity (TA), total soluble solids (TSS), and pH values of pomegranates produced in origin climate than the warm environment; thus, suggest that changes in pomegranate cultivar origin had a clear impact on fruit juice quality. Environmental factors, such as wind speed, altitude, and annual precipitation, had a significant correlation with a* skin, TSS, fruit weight, aril weight, edible portion, pH, TA, phenol, antioxidants, and anthocyanin content.

Phenotypic Diversity of Pomegranate Cultivars: Discriminating Power of Some Morphological and Fruit Chemical Characteristics

“…The fruit weights of the cultivars 'Barski slatki', 'Konjski zub', 'Sladun', and 'Šerbetaš' were higher (and for 'Dividiš'-lower) than the fruit weights of the same cultivars grown in a production plantation under agroecological conditions in Metković, Croatia [24]. This was most likely due to different environmental conditions, as the study by Ghasemi-Soloklui [25] found that the change in the initial climate of pomegranate cultivars affects the weight of the fruit, aril, and peel. We divided the cultivars into three groups according to fruit weight: cultivars with medium ('Dubrovački kasni', 'Medunac', 'Mojdiški sitnozrni'), large ('Bokežan', 'Domaći kiseli', 'Glavaš', 'Kristal', 'Zamorac', 'Granada', and 'Wonderful'), and very large ('Barski slatki', 'Dividiš', 'Konjski zub', 'Pastun', 'Sladun', 'Slatki crveni', 'Slatki tankokorac', 'Šerbetaš', and 'Hicaznar') fruits.…”

Multichromosomal mitochondrial genome of Punica granatum: comparative evolutionary analysis and gene transformation from chloroplast genomes

“…Pomegranate ( Punica granatum L.) belongs to the genus Punica of the Lythraceae family, and is an essentially valuable fruit tree in the world [ 1 – 3 ]. It is native to Central Asia region and grows mainly in tropical and subtropical countries such as India, Iran, China, and the USA [ 4 , 5 ]. The consumption of pomegranates has shown a remarkable increase due to their exceptional economic, nutritional, medicinal and ornamental value.…”