ROLE OF APRICOT CULTIVARS IN HUMAN HEALTHY CONSUMPTION

Nowadays the production of functional foods has become more important. The juices and foods with high fruit content are in high demand with customers. Therefore the processing industry needs fruit cultivars with excellent nutritional value. Apricot contains various healthy ingredients both fresh and processed. The content of polyphenols and β-carotene in fruity foods depends on the ripening stage, variety, processing stage together with storage conditions. In our study we aimed to compare the new apricot varieties (‘Laycot’, ‘Sylred’, ‘Sylvercot’) to the traditional Hungarian varieties (‘Budapest’, ‘Ceglédi arany’, ‘Gönci magyar kajszi’). We detected beta-carotene and polyphenol contents of apricots in different ripening stages by spectrophotometer. We experienced significant differences in the varieties. We measured the highest polyphenol content in fruits of the traditional ‘Gönci magyar kajszi’ and ‘Ceglédi arany’ cultivars. The β-carotene content at 90% stage in ‘Budapest’ and ‘Ceglédi arany’ varieties exceeded the other analyzed varieties.