Health and taste related compounds in strawberries under various irrigation regimes and bio-stimulant application

PubMedID: 29784329Strawberry has a unique status within the fruit species in terms of health and taste related compounds. This experimental study concerned the application of a bio-stimulant at various drip irrigation levels (IR125, IR100, IR75 and IR50). The effects of the bio-stimulant (seaweed extract) on the eating quality, i.e., the taste-related (TSS, fructose, glucose, sucrose and citric, malic, L-ascorbic acid), and health-related (antioxidant activity, total phenol, myricetin and quercetin) compounds were studied in two strawberry cultivars. The ‘Rubygem’ with its higher sugar and lower acid content has been more preferable than the ‘Kabarla’ cultivar. The bio-stimulant contributes to taste by improving the TSS, fructose, sucrose and also to health by increasing the quercetin content of the fruit which is associated to the cardiovascular properties and cancer reducing agents. The experiment conducted revealed significant increases only in the TSS contents and antioxidant activity under the IR50 and IR75 deficit irrigation treatments. © 2018 Elsevier LtdFirat University Scientific Research Projects Management Unit: FDK-2016-5886This work was financially supported by the Coordination Unit of the Scientific Research Projects of the Çukurova University via the project FDK-2016-5886. S. Kapur (Ph. D, Aberdeen University, UK), retired faculty of Çukurova and Maryland Universities (European Division) is acknowledged for the language editing of the text