evaluation of some physicochemical characteristics of six iranian pomegranate (punica granatum l.) cultivars fruit at ripening stage

abstract pomegranate (punica granatum l.) is an important iranian-native fruit, and many of its varieties are cultivated. this research was conducted to evaluate some of the major physical and chemical properties of six pomegranate cultivars at ripening stage in a completely randomized design with 4 replications. the investigated traits were fruit fresh weight, fruit volume, peel thickness, peel percentage, aril percentage, fruit juice percentage, seed percentage, peel moisture, juice moisture and seed moisture as physical features and vitamin c, reducing sugar, anthocyanin, ph, titrable acidity, total soluble solids and flavor index as the chemical characteristics. the results indicated that shahvar and faroogh had the highest (346.6 g) and lowest (220.8 g) fruit weight, respectively. the highest (42.1%) and the lowest (24.5%) peel percentage were observed in rabbab and faroogh, respectively. the highest and the lowest aril percentage were recorded in cultivars faroogh and rabbab (75.5% and 57.9%), respectively. the results also showed that the highest content of reducing sugar was obtained in faroogh (27.8 g.100 ml-1 juice) and the lowest one (17.9 g.100 ml-1 juice) in rabbab. the highest (27.7 mg.100 ml-1 juice) and the lowest (7.9 mg.100 ml-1 juice) amount of anthocyanin were detected in aghaie and shahvar, respectively. the shirinbihaste had the highest (15.1 mg.100 ml-1 juice) and aghaie had the lowest (8.7 mg.100 ml-1 juice) vitamin c content. according to the results, faroogh cultivar has more considerable advantages than the other evaluated cultivars. this cultivar is therefore recommend to be used as either for export and internal consumption or as processed forms in fruit juice factories.