PHYSICAL AND COMPOSITIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHESTNUT FRUITS

Abstract

The objective of this study was investigationofphysical and compositional fruits characteristics of six chestnut cultivars. The fruits belonging to these cultivars were subjected to physical and chemical composition determinations, and the obtained results were comparatively analysed. It can be noticed that there are significant differences between cultivars for all the analysed traits. A high variability was found between cultivars in terms of nutrients content. The moisture content of chestnuts analysed in this study ranged from 51.63% to 58.42%. The protein content recorded values between 5.40 and 7.18% fresh matter. The polyphenols content in cultivars taken under analysis was between 1.65 and 19.60 mg GAE/g, which is a very large variation range between different cultivars. The obtained values of antioxidant activity of chestnuts are high, ranging from 0.73 to 9.90 mg Trolox/g of fresh substance, revealing also a wide variation range. Among the individual phenolic compounds, elagic and gallic acids were determined in higher amounts. The results of this study have shown that chestnut fruits contain significant concentrations of primary and secondary metabolites that are known for their positive effects on human health.