Physical, chemical, sensorial and bioactive characteristics of local and standard pear cultivars in Turkey.

Some important physical (fruit external color, flesh firmness, fruit size, fruit weight, fruit volume, stone cell), chemical (ash, pH, soluble solid content, sugars, titrata-ble acidity), sensorial (appearance, firmness, sweetness, grittiness, juiciness and overall quality) and bioactive (antioxidant capacity, phenolic compounds, total phenolic content, vitamin C) characteristics of eleven local and one standard pear cultivar were investigat-ed. All cultivars were found in national pear repository in Ataturk Horticultural Central Research Institute in Turkey. Fruit weight of pears was between 56.80 g (‘Kirmizi Biber’) and 128.94 g (‘Erkenci Uzun Sap’). Results showed that ‘Bağ’ cultivar had the highest sensorial scores (8.4 overall quality) and antioxidant capacity (21.44 mg ascorbic acid equivalent∙g-1). Stone cell were found between 63.65 (‘Gümüşhane’) and 81.65 mg dry weight∙g-1 (‘Maslovka’). The cultivar ‘Orak’ showed the highest chlorogenic acid (185.98 mg∙kg-1) and epicatechin (108.26 mg∙kg-1) content.