title: Diversity and relationships in key traits for functional and apparent quality in a collection of eggplant: fruit phenolics content, antioxidant activity, polyphenol oxidase activity, and browning.
abstract: Eggplant (Solanum melongena) varieties with increased levels of phenolics in the fruit present enhanced functional quality, but may display greater fruit flesh browning. We evaluated 18 eggplant accessions for fruit total phenolics content, chlorogenic acid content, DPPH scavenging activity, polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activity, liquid extract browning, and fruit flesh browning. For all the traits we found a high diversity, with differences among accessions of up to 3.36-fold for fruit flesh browning. Variation in total content in phenolics and in chlorogenic acid content accounted only for 18.9% and 6.0% in the variation in fruit flesh browning, and PPO activity was not significantly correlated with fruit flesh browning. Liquid extract browning was highly correlated with chlorogenic acid content (r = 0.852). Principal components analysis (PCA) identified four groups of accessions with different profiles for the traits studied. Results suggest that it is possible to develop new eggplant varieties with improved functional and apparent quality.
authors: Instituto de Conservación y Mejora de la Agrodiversidad Valenciana and ‡Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Plantas, Universitat Politècnica de València , Camino de Vera 14, 46022 Valencia, Spain.
authors: Mariola
authors: M
authors: Plazas
authors: María P
authors: MP
authors: López-Gresa
authors: Santiago
authors: S
authors: Vilanova
authors: Cristina
authors: C
authors: Torres
authors: Maria
authors: M
authors: Hurtado
authors: Pietro
authors: P
authors: Gramazio
authors: Isabel
authors: I
authors: Andújar
authors: Francisco J
authors: FJ
authors: Herráiz
authors: José M
authors: JM
authors: Bellés
authors: Jaime
authors: J
authors: Prohens
mesh_terms: D000975:Antioxidants / Q000032:analysis*; D004156:Catechol Oxidase / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism; D003116:Color; D005638:Fruit / Q000737:chemistry / Q000201:enzymology*; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D010636:Phenols / Q000032:analysis*; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism; D032323:Solanum melongena / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000201:enzymology
chemical_list: D000975:Antioxidants; D010636:Phenols; D010940:Plant Proteins; D004156:Catechol Oxidase