'NINGYU': A NEW CULTIVAR WITH HIGH REDUCING SUGAR, ASCORBIC ACID AND ANTIOXIDANT CAPACITY

‘Ningyu’ has been released from the breeding programme at Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences since 2010. It is a new, early fruiting and balanced aroma cultivar with anthracnose resistance, which is derived from ‘Sachinoka’ × ‘Akihime’ in 2005. Plant characterization, fruit weight and color, total titrable acidity, organic acid, sugar, ascorbic acid and antioxidant capacity were evaluated. Compared with ‘Sweet Charlie’, ‘Ningyu’ has lower plant height (7.34 cm) and leaf area (21.83 cm2), thinner crown (22.42 cm), slighter leaf weight (0.18 g) and slighter average single fruit weight (21.66 g) at the first cropping, while the average single fruit weight of ‘Sweet Charlie’ is 27.2 g. ‘Sweet Charlie’’s fruit surface and flesh color are redder (hue angle value smaller) and greater in pigment intensity (chroma value bigger) than ‘Ningyu’’s. ‘Sweet Charlie’’s total titratable acid and citric acid are bigger than ‘Ningyu’. There are equal amounts in malic acid between the two cultivars. ‘Ningyu’ has greater amounts of fructose (148.98 mg/100 g FW), glucose(195.92 mg/100 g FW), reducing sugar (344.91 mg/100 g FW), ascorbic acid (68.9575 mg/100 g FW) and antioxidant capacity (1.433 mmol trolox/100 g FW) than ‘Sweet Charlie’.