Morpho-biochemical characterization of pomelo (Citrus grandis L.) accessions and assessment of bioactive compounds under western part of West Bengal

Rich genetic base of Pomelo (Citrus grandis L.) in India as a whole and Eastern India in particular, made wide variation in their fruit morphology, quality and presence of bioactive compounds.Thus the present study has been undertaken to characterize twelve pomelo accessions selected from different locations of Birbhum distrct which comes under western dry tract of West Bengal during the year 2023 at Department of Horticulture & Postharvest Technology, Institute of Agriculture, Visva-Bharati, Sriniketan, West Bengal (India).Wide fruit morphological variation with respect to fruit length (14.2 to 25.0cm), fruit diameter (14.1 to 23.5) and rind thickness (1.15 to 2.36cm) were observed within the studied pomelo accessions.Considerable wider ranges of fruit weight (478.7 to 1323.6g), pulp weight (326.2 to 1051.5g), number of segments (13.6 to 18.0) have also been noted.Mean value of number of seeds and 10 seed weight was 46.18/fruit and 3.17g respectively which exhibited the range of 27.5 to 61.7/fruit and 2.22 to 4.79g respectively.Juice content varied from 48.7 to 65.1 ml/100g fruit pulp with 58.23 ml/ 100g as mean value.Moderate to high TSS (7.5 to 12.4 o Brix), good range of total sugar (5.2 to 7.7%) and reducing sugar (3.0 to 4.6%) have been noted from different pomelo accessions.Mean value of acidity was 0.87% and TSSacidity ratio was ranged from 8.06 to 16.37.Richness of the fruit in ascorbic acid content was noted (31.9 to 49.9 mg/100g pulp) along with high to moderate antioxidation capacity (30.8 to 65.4 DPPH IC 50 ).Pomelo fruits were rich in flavonoid content (3.2 to 7.2 mgRE/g) with high total phenolics (272.9 to 412.0 µgGAE/g) and diverse anthocyanin content (5.3 to 48.5 mg/100g).