phenotypic diversity among apricot (prunus armeniaca l.) cultivars growing in west central tunisia

Purpose: apricot production extends from the north to the south oftunisia with many cultivars adapted to different local microclimates.this large extension of apricot is associated with an importantgenetic diversity, which is threatened to erosion. this study aims toselect cultivars with enhanced antioxidant capacity that will benefitconsumers with health-promoting properties. researchmethod: this study was conducted over three growing seasons(2016-2018) in flesh fruits nine apricot cultivars (‘amor leuch’,‘bakour’, ‘búlida’, ‘bayoudhi’, ‘canino’, ‘khit eloued’, ‘khad hlima’,‘sayeb’ and ‘wardi’). the experiment was established in privateapricot orchard in the region of hajeb laayoun- kairouan, westcentral tunisia. findings: results showed that the fruit firmnessranged from 20.4 n in the cultivar ‘sayeb’ to 32.5 n in the cultivar‘canino’. the soluble solids content varied from 10.2 °brix in the cv.‘bakour’ to 15.0 °brix in the cultivar ‘bayoudhi’. a wide range ofvariability was found among the apricot cultivars with regard to thephenolic compounds content [32.7-71.5 mg gae/100 g fw]. thecultivar ‘khad hlima’ presented the highest value of relativeantioxidant capacity (366.8 μg trolox equivalents/g fw). our studypermits to select the cv. ‘bakour’ with the needed precocity, the cv.‘canino’ with high firmness, the cv. ‘bayoudhi’ with the highest sscand the cv. ‘khad hlima’ with high nutritional quality. researchlimitations: no limitations were found. originality/value: this studyrepresents a valuable source of genotypes to be used in apricotbreeding programs.