The effects of harvesting time on the physicochemical components of aronia berry

Abstract

The aim of this work was to compare ‘Nero’ and ‘Viking’ aronia cultivars and to determine the optimum harvest dates of each cultivar for various utilizations. For this purpose, we characterized the changes in both aronia cultivars’ physicochemical components over their harvest period and identified the correlations between them. Mean berry weight, dry matter, soluble solid content, antioxidant activity, and anthocyanin content of berries of both cultivars increased until the second and third weeks of September. They then began decreasing gradually, whereas total phenol content and condensed tannins kept increasing until 27 October. It was observed that berries of ‘Nero’ ripened 15 days earlier than those of ‘Viking’. As a result, anthocyanin content of ‘Nero’ peaked earlier (25 August) than that of ‘Viking’. The highest correlation (r = 0.75, P