Investigation of physicochemical characterizations of some Medlar (Mespilus germanica L.) genotypes in East Azerbaijan province

Medlar (Mespilus germanicaL) grows wildly in East Azerbaijan province (Arasbaran). Unfortunately, a few studies have been done on medlar in this area, except in limited cases. In this research, physicochemical characterizations such as weight, length and width of fruit and seed, fruit color parameters and antioxidant capacity of peel and flesh of 20 wild medlar genotypes were measured. Results showed that there were high diversity in some of the attributes such as peduncle length, a*, Hue, seed weight and flesh antioxidant capacity. The 10 main factors based on factor analysis were explained approximately 85.97 % of the total variance. According to the cluster analysis, genotypes were divided into four main groups. The first group includes four genotypes (M7, M8, M5, M6) which had the highest mean length, width, thickness and weight of the seeds. In the second group, the eight genotypes (M3, M9, M10, M11, M2, M4, M1, M13) were located and these genotypes had the highest mean length, width, weight and geometric mean diameter of fruit. The third group of genotypes included two genotypes (M19, M20). The leaf length, petiole length, peduncle length, pH, and Hue had a significant role in the separation of this group. In fourth group, the six genotypes (M14, M15, M16, M12, M17, M18) were located and the peel and flesh antioxidant capacity had the highest impact in separation of this group. Obtained results might be helpful for breeding programs and introducing of cultivar in medlar.