Polyphenolic profile of organically grown traditional apple cultivars

The Republic of Croatia is a country with a long tradition of apple production and processing, and the cultivation of traditional apple cultivars in extensive farming occupies an important place for the economy, agronomy, and public health. Traditional fruit cultivars in Croatia are a valuable asset and natural heritage, which does not receive enough attention for popularization and processing. Some traditional apple cultivars possess great potential for organic and ecological fruit growing that is becoming increasingly popular. This is well aligned with increasing consumers’ awareness about old cultivars with their specifi c morphological properties and valuable bioactive compounds, vitamins and minerals without the risks of harmful eff ects of applied pesticides. New knowledge and research on traditional apple cultivars would strengthen the market for these fruits and their products, prevent the loss of this valuable genetic material, and contribute to greater biodiversity to promote health and overall well-being. This research was conducted on organically grown traditional Croatian cultivars collected from OPG Horvatić, Cvetkovac, 48312 Rasinja, Croatia. For this purpose, polyphenol profi le of fi ve traditional Croatian cultivars (‘Srčika’, ‘Mašanka’, ‘Kanadska reneta’, ‘Božićnica’ and ‘Ivandija’) was determined by chromatographic (HPLCDAD) method. Total of 16 polyphenols were identifi ed with chlorogenic acid (CA) as the most prominent. The content of CA ranged from 929.77- 3028.78 μg/kg. ‘Božićnica’ had the highest content of catechin and epicatechin (114.89 and 229.81 μg/kg, respectively) while ‘Srčika’ had the highest content of phloridzin and phloretin (117.75 and 48.23 μg/kg, respectively). The results showed that traditional apple cultivars are rich with polyphenols making them a desirable cultivar for a healthy snack. Funding: This work has been supported by Croatian Science Foundation under the project “The possibility of exploiting traditional apple cultivars for the production of apples and apple juice with the reduced patulin content” (UIP‐2020‐02‐8461).