Persimmon fruits are often affected by large postharvest losses due to rapid ripening and the early onset of senescence. To reduce such losses in fresh fruits, the application of hydrocolloid-based edible coatings was conducted. Therefore, a plant hydrocolloid-based gum, tragacanth gum (TCG), was applied to persimmon fruits at 0.5%, 1%, and 1.5% TCG concentrations, and stored at 20 ± 2 °C and 80–85% relative humidity for 20 days (analysis at 0, 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 20th day). As a result of TCG application on persimmon fruits, there were greatly suppressed respiration rates, ethylene production, weight loss, decay incidence, and H₂O₂ and malondialdehyde content. In addition, TCG-coated persimmon fruits had higher concentrations of bioactive compounds including phenols, flavonoids, carotenoids, ascorbic acid, and soluble tannin. Higher enzymatic antioxidant activities and lower softening enzyme activities were also recorded for TCG-coated persimmon fruits. Uncoated persimmon fruits quickly lost fruit quality attributes like color, firmness, taste, and aroma during storage compared to coated ones. Based on our findings, the use of TCG, especially at the concentration of 1% TCG, can be recommended to be applied as the edible coating to maintain the nutritional, biochemical, and commercial quality of persimmon fruits during ambient storage.

Sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides L. ssp. caucasica Rousi) is one of the most important wild edible fruits, grown in Turkey for centuries without any chemical treatments. The plant is extremely resistant to adverse environmental conditions. In this study, the main agro-morphological and biochemical berry traits and, to a lesser extent, other plant morphological traits of 10 sea buckthorn genotypes sampled from the eastern Anatolia (Sivas province) region were assessed. Among the 10 genotypes, five of them presented a shrub growth habit, whereas five of them presented tree growth habit, with leaf area ranging from 2.56 to 4.22 cm². The majority of genotypes had an oblong berry shape with variable berry skin color ranging from dark orange to orange, light orange, and yellow. The weight of 100 berries varied from 13.85 to 23.87 g, while juice yield and vitamin C content was found to be 44.87–57.15% and 37.45–62.85 mg/100 g fresh berry base, respectively. Soluble solid content (SSC) was in the range of 12.56–14.67%. The genotypes exhibited a great variability in total anthocyanin content (from 9.1 to 38.7 mg/L), with relatively dark-orange sea buckthorn berries containing more anthocyanin than orange, light-orange, and yellow berries. Linoleic acid was the main fatty acid detected in the pulp of sea buckthorn berries, ranging from 24.11% to 36.37%, depending on the genotype. Investigated genotypes proved also to be rich in total phenolic content, showing at the same time great variability in this trait. The results obtained from the relatively limited number of genotypes show promising traits for further valorization of both horticultural and nutritional traits, suggesting potentially even higher variability, if more genotypes are going to be considered in the future.

Wild edible fruits have been used centuries by local people mainly for nutrition purposes and they have attracted the attention of researchers in the last decade throughout the world. Among wild edible fruits, the strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo) is widely distributed mainly in Mediterranean countries. However, the lack of information about strawberry tree genetic resources in Mediterranean countries is a major cause of its low exploitation by breeders. For a practical use and exploitation of the strawberry tree native germplasm, phenological, morphological, and biochemical characterization of the plant is essential. In this study, some important phenological, morphological, and biochemical characteristics of sixteen local strawberry tree genotypes were determined. Significant variations (p < 0.05) were observed in most of the investigated phenological, morphological, and biochemical traits of the genotypes. The genotypes were harvested between 2–21 November. The fruit weight and the number of fruits per cluster of the genotypes varied from 3.89 to 6.86 g and 3.61 to 7.94, respectively. Vitamin C and total dietary fiber contents of genotypes were found quite variable, ranging from 58 to 93 mg/100 g and 7.04 to 12.36 g/100 g, respectively. The fruits of the strawberry tree include mainly fructose and glucose rather than sucrose. Local strawberry tree genotypes are found to be promising for further valorization through horticultural characteristics for breeding. Some genotypes had significantly higher fruit weight, vitamin C concentrations, total dietary fiber, and total phenolic concentration and may be good selections for producing health products.

Wild edible fruits are an important source for agriculture worldwide suffering from genetic erosion due to a severe genetic diversity reduction and domestication hindrance. In Türkiye, underutilized Prunus spinosa fruits are increasingly being considered as genetic resources and are marginally used by small farmers constituting a real safety valve for the sustainability of the processing plum value chain. Fruits of those plum genotypes differ in their biometric, processing and functional quality attributes. In this study, fruits of eight wild grown blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) genotypes were sampled from the Ispir district of the Erzurum province and subjected to sensory, morphological, biochemical and antioxidant characterization. Aroma, taste and juiciness were used as the criteria for sensory analysis, and a trained panel of ten experts established and evaluated the sensory characteristics of the fruits of the blackthorn. Fruit weight, fruit skin and flesh color as L*, a* and b* values were the main morphological parameters. For biochemical and bioactive analysis, organic acids, SSC (Soluble Solid Content), vitamin C, total anthocyanins, total phenolic content and total antioxidant capacity were determined. Antioxidant capacity was determined by FRAP (ferric reducing antioxidant power) assay. The results indicated significant differences among genotypes for most of the traits. The fruit weight was found between 2.78–3.67 g. The skin L*, a* and b* values were 13.11–16.12, 2.56–3.85 and 2.01–3.44, respectively. The flesh L*, a* and b* values were in the ranges of 17.45–20.37, 4.88–6.73 and 4.12–5.66, respectively. The SSC content ranged from 18.66% to 21.07%. The total phenolic content (TPC), total anthocyanin content (TAC) and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) were between 372–504 mg GAE/100 g; 53–72 mg cy-3 g eq./100 g and 107–134 mmol Fe (II) eq./g, respectively. The dominant organic acid was malic acid for all genotypes and varied from 1.04 g/100 g to 1.52 g/100 g fresh weight base. The data showed that the analyzed blackthorns, particularly PS-5, PS-3 and PS-2 had bigger fruits indicate their suitability for fresh and dried consumption, PS-1 and PS-3 had higher juiciness, indicating their suitability for processing, and PS-4 and PS-6 had higher human health promoting compounds (higher total phenolic content and antioxidant capacity), making them suitable for future use as functional foods and as promising sources of natural antioxidants.

Oleaster-leafed pear (Pyrus elaeagrifolia Pall. subsp. elaeagrifolia) fruits are used for food and dietary supplements in Turkey, and seedlings are used as rootstock for pear cultivars. Information on the effect of genotypes on oleaster-leafed pear fruit characteristics is needed in order to optimize production of quality food and dietary supplements. The characteristics of oleaster-leafed pear fruits relative to genetic background were evaluated from 16 wild grown oleaster-leafed pear genotypes at eastern Turkey. Genotype influenced ripening dates, fruit weight, fruit length/width ratio, fruit pedicel length, fruit flesh texture, fruit firmness, the number of seeds per fruit, soluble solid content, titratable acidity, total phenolic content, total flavonoid content and antioxidant activity. Analysis of the data obtained from 16 oleaster-leafed pear genotypes demonstrated a highly significant influence of genotype on fruit characteristics. The genotypes G12, G13 and G9 had the highest fruit weight (19.22, 18.54 and 18.30 g) and G9 the highest total phenolic content (122 mg gallic acid equivalent/100 g fresh fruit). The genotypes G3, G5, G11 and G13 had the slightly sandy fruit flesh texture and those genotypes may be good selections for processing and producing health oleaster-leafed pear products.