Mihailo Nikolic

Sugar and organic acids profile in the fruits of black and red currant cultivars.

In this study, three black currant cultivars (Ben Sarek, Ben Lomond and Malling Juel) and three red currant cultivars (Industrija, Rondom and Red Versailles) were compared in terms of fruit quality by high-performance liquid chromatography analysis in order to determine sugars and organic acids profiles in their fruits. Among the analysed individual sugars, fructose was determined to be the major component in all studied cultivars. Cv Ben Lomond exhibited the highest levels of glucose (78,8 mg g-1 FW), fructose (117,6 mg g-1 FW) and sucrose (10,1 mg g-1 FW) in comparison to the other tested black currant cultivars. Among investigated red currant cultivars the highest amounts of glucose (81,1 mg g-1 FW), fructose (113,1 mg g-1 FW) and sucrose (14,5 mg g-1 FW) were recorded in the fruits of cv Industrija, as well as the richest content of total sugars (208,7 mg g-1 FW). The same tendency was noticed considering the organic acids content (citric and malic), that is, the highest levels were registered with the cv Industrija (0,32 mg g-1 FW and 0,13 mg g-1 FW, respectively). Black currant cv Ben Sarek displayed the highest contents of citric and malic acids (0,68 mg g-1 FW and 0,14 mg g-1 F, respectively). Generally, dominant share of total acids was exhibited by citric acid in all studied black and red currant cultivars. These results point to the fact that the chemical fruit composition of currants significantly varied among the genotypes of each species analysed. .

Relationship between Soil Management System and Cultivar in Black Currant (Ribes nigrum L.)

Summary This experiment evaluated the effect of soil management systems in a black currant planting on the generative potential (number of flowers per inflorescence, number of berries per cluster and yield per bush), physical attributes of the cluster and fruit (berry weight and cluster weight) and chemical properties of the fruit (soluble solids content, total sugars, titratable acidity, total anthocyanins, total phenolic content and vitamin C) of black currant cultivars. Three soil management systems were used: treatment I – bare fallow i.e. continuous tillage; treatment II – sawdust mulch, and treatment III – black polyethylene foil mulch. Four black currant cultivars were included - ‘Ben Lomond’, ‘Titania’, ‘Čačanska crna’ and ‘Tiben’. The soil management systems had a significant effect on the tested parameters. The cultivars also showed highly significant differences. Soil management system x cultivar interactions were observed for generative potential, and physical properties of the cluster and fruit, but not for fruit chemical traits, except in the soluble solids content.