"Improved quality assessment of cornelian cherry (Cornus mas L.) fruit with regard to their processing potential".

The sensory properties and appropriateness of cornelian cherry (Cornus mas L.) for processing is very closely related to its ripening stage, recognizable by firmness and skin colour to some extent. Due to the non-uniform ripening on the trees the quality of the fruits offered on the market depends very much on the harvest-method. Today, processors, who usually do not buy fresh fruits but frozen fruits or puree on the market, don`t have a suitable means for the accurate quality assessment of the raw material they need for the processing of high-quality products. The results of this work show for the first time that from the selected parameters (carbohydrates, organic acids, phenols) only flavonols, especially kaempferol-3-glucoside is appropriate to determine the stage of ripeness of cornelian cherries properly independent from species, provenance and crop year. Kaempferol 3-O-glucoside of about 1.75 mg/Kg in wild genotypes and of about 0.80 mg/Kg in most big cornelian cherry species can serve as a reference for sufficient ripeness and therefore for high fruit quality.

Nutrients, bioactive compounds, and minerals in the juices of 16 varieties of apple (Malus domestica) harvested in Austria: A four-year study investigating putative correlations with weather conditions during ripening.

This study was conducted to examine putative correlations between weather parameters during April-September and the amounts of nutrients, minerals and bioactive compounds in the juices of 16 apple varieties from four harvest years in Lower Austria. For most sugar-parameters, negative correlations were found with the total precipitation (r between -0.42 and -0.64). Conversely, positive correlations were observed with the mean air temperature (r between 0.32 and 0.66), the global radiation (r between 0.32 and 0.61) and the number of tropical days (r between 0.39 and 0.51). The sum of 14 polyphenols (HPLC quantitation) was positively correlated with the mean air temperature and global radiation (rs 0.44 and 0.42). Negative correlations were observed between the global radiation and potassium, magnesium and calcium contents (correlation coefficients -0.49, -0.68 and -0.69). We conclude that increased temperatures and global radiation can be correlated with enhanced sugar synthesis and polyphenol formation.