Physical Properties of Sixteen Indigenous Barberry Genotypes

Introduction: Barberries are a wide class of spiny evergreen or deciduous shrubs belonging to Berberidaceae family that are of great importance due to their nutritional and medicinal properties of their different parts and also their ornamental applications. Genus Berberis, the biggest genus in Berberidaceae, includes more than 660 species. Barberry grows in Asia and Europe; and has been used extensively as a medicinal plant in traditional medicine. In Iranian and Turkish traditional medicine, several properties, such as antibacterial, antipyretic, antipruritic and antiarrhythmic activities have been reported with unknown mechanisms of action. Amazing structural diversity among barberries’ active components makes them a useful source of novel therapeutic compounds. Seedless barberry (Berberis integerrima ‘Asperma’) is one of the Iran’s indigenous valuable medicinal plants. Common asexual propagation of this plant over years and consequently low genetic diversity in populations of the seedless barberry restricts selection outcome in breeding programs. Utilizing the indigenous wild genotypes of barberry genus, which are easily able to cross-pollinate is one of the best methods to increase the genetic diversity. To meet this purpose, several wild seedy barberry genotypes were identified from all over the Iran, collected and established in a collection in Mashhad; then 16 genotypes were selected and their physical properties were studied. Materials and Methods: In this study mature fruits of sixteen unique genotypes (i.e. Iranian seedless barberry and fifteen seedy genotypes) were harvested in October- November, 2015 and kept in refrigerator in order to measure some of their physical properties in fresh fruits (berry dimension, weight of one hundred fresh berries, juice content and color indexes). For other properties, fruits were dried at room temperature. Fruit cluster length was measured by means of a ruler, number of berries/cluster and number of set and aborted seeds/berry by counting, berry dimensions by a digital coulis, weight of one hundred fresh and dried berries, percentage of pulp and seed as well as fruit juice content by a scale with 0.001 accuracy. Moisture content was determined by using an oven with 75 oC temperature for 48 hour. Color indexes including “L”, “a” and “b” were measured by using a chromometer (Model Konica Minolta Chroma Meters CR-410). This study was performed using a completely randomized design with 3 replications. Data were analyzed by Minitab software version 16 using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and differences among means were determined for significance at p