ARS | Publication request: DIETARY FIBRE CONTENT OF THIRTEEN APPLE CULTIVARS

Submitted to: Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: April 16, 1997
Publication Date: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Dietary fiber is a significant nutritional component of apples. These results provide information on the range of fiber content for many commercially grown apple varieties. It was interesting that there is almost double the amount of fiber in 'York' apples, with the highest fiber content, as compared to 'Fuji' cultivar, with the lowest fiber. This work should be of interest to apple breeders and growers, as well as dietitians.

Technical Abstract: Fibre composition of the following 13 apple cultivars was studied: 'Cortland', 'Empire', 'Fuji', 'Golden Delicious', 'Gala', 'Granny Smith', 'Jonagold', 'Mutsu', 'McIntosh', 'Delicious', 'Rome', 'Stayman' and York'. Fruit samples from each of these cultivars were analysed for non-starch cell wall materials (NSCWM) and non-starch polysaccharides (NSP). NSCWM was further fractionated into soluble and insoluble fibre fractions. Both NSCWM and NSP content were found to be significantly influenced by cultivar. NSCWM content ranged from 19.1 g kg-1 apple flesh in 'Fuji' to 36.2 g kg-1 in 'York'. Mean (+/- SD) NSCWM content of all the cultivars was 23.1 +/-4.5 g kg-1. NSP content of apple flesh ranged from 13.8 g kg-1 in 'McIntosh' to 28.7 g kg-1 in York with the overall mean for all cultivars being 17.9 +/- 4.2 g kg-1. Relative amount of monosaccharides found in the hydrolysates of apple fibre also varied among cultivars. The greatest difference was observed in galactose content.