MINERAL CONTENTS IN THE WHOLE FRUIT, FLESH AND PEEL OF FIVE ROMANIAN APPLE CULTIVARS

The minerals content (Ca, Cu, Fe, Mn, Mg, Na, K and Zn) was determined in five Romanian apple cultivars (Ardelean, Auriu de Cluj, Feleac, Productiv de Cluj and Rosu de Cluj). The apples were collected from an orchard located in Cluj County, North-West region Romania, during 2014. The analytical method for the determination of selected elements in whole apple, flesh and peel consists in microwave acid digestion followed by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry measurement. The concentrations of the elements found in whole fruit/flesh + peel (a) flesh (b) and peel (c) were found to be comparable for most of the elements of interest, namely in mg/kg (d.w.): 28290, 28434 and 30350 K; 8.14, 7.66 and 8.31 Na; 241, 231 and 280 Ca; 244, 226 and 347 Mg; 3.18, 1.65 and 3.08 Cu; 2.82, 2.50 and 2.94 Fe; 1.30, 0.35 and 2.29 Mn and 1.57, 1.71 and 2.51 Zn, respectively.