Navid Yazdani; Shahnaz Hamidi; Karamatollah Rezaei; Kourosh Vahdati; Ali Reza Rahmanian Haghighi
Abstract
Persian walnut (Juglan regia L.) is known as an important horticultural crop not only in Iran, but also in all over the world. Walnut kernels are rich source of functional compounds with a high nutritional value. In the present study, 13 cultivars and superior genotypes of walnut, include ‘Chandler’, ...
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Persian walnut (Juglan regia L.) is known as an important horticultural crop not only in Iran, but also in all over the world. Walnut kernels are rich source of functional compounds with a high nutritional value. In the present study, 13 cultivars and superior genotypes of walnut, include ‘Chandler’, ‘Lara’, ‘Vina’, ‘Pedro’, ‘Ser’, ‘Damavand’, ‘Jamal’, ‘RDM’, B21, K72, Z53, Z60, Z67 were harvested during 2013. Several pomological characteristics and fatty acid profiles of walnuts were analyzed after drying. Average weight of fruit and kernels were varied between 7.6-16.20 g and 3.8-8.7 g, respectively in different cultivars. The oil contents were varied from 54.4 to 72.1%. The results showed that the unsaturated fatty acid (UFA) compounds are prevalent in walnut oils by more than 90% of total fatty acids. Linoleic acid was the major fatty acid reaching the maximum value of 67.3% (cv. Z60) followed by oleic (18.3-34.2%), linolenic (3.1-14.0%), palmitic (6.3-8.5%) and stearic (2.8-4.3%) acids, respectively. The protein content ranged from 12.6 to 19.6%. The highest amounts of kernel and oil percentages were detected in B21 and ‘RDM’ respectively. Also, the highest amount of protein percentage was reported for ‘Jamal’. Also, high rates of poly unsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) were shown in Z53, Z60 and ‘Chandler’. Moreover, the highest amounts of UFA to saturated fatty acids (SFA) were detected in ‘Jamal’, Z67,Z53 and K72.