Characteristics of Organic Acid Contents and Fermentation Solution of Prunus mume in South Korean

Abstract

This study was carried out to get the information of Plum tree (192 germplasm) collected in Korea, and to evaluatethe organic acid contents and fermentation solution. The organic acid content of fruit was 50.9 ± 6.0 ㎎/g, and which wascomposed of 55.5% of citric acid, 43.4% of malic acid and 1.1% of oxalic acid, and showed large difference amonggermplasms. Oxalic acid and malic acid made no differences in organic acid content according to flesh color, whereas citricacid and total organic acid contents were highest in orange color and lowest in whitish green. Malic acid, citric acid and totalorganic acid contents did not show differences among fruit weight groups, but oxalic acid content was highest at fruit weightof 5.1 ~ 10.0 g and lowest at more than 20.1 g. The sugar content of fermentation solution of fruit was 55.7 ± 1.6 °Brix andthe harvest rate was 116.7 ± 8.7%. The correlation coefficients among fruit weight, the sugar content (°Brix) and harvest rateof fermentation solution were very low, and there were correlations of r=–0.551** between fruit weight and oxalic acid, r=–0.767** between malic acid and citric acid, and r=0.834** between citric acid and total organic acid content.