Differences in Sugar Composition in Prunus persica Fruit and the Classification by the Principal Component Analysis

Abstract

Sugars were analyzed in a total of 54 peach cultivars, selections and wild types. Fructose, glucose, sorbitol, inositol and sucrose were detected as the main sugars. In the sugar composition, sucrose was the major sugar and inostitol was the minor one in all the materials, accounting for 74% and 1.1% of the total sugar content, respectively. The percentage of fructose was higher throughout the season in eating peaches than in native and flowering peaches. The distribution of the sugar composition was evaluated by principal component analysis. The scatter diagram of peaches according to scores of 1st and 2nd principal components suggested the existence of 2 groups. These groups corresponded to the different groups for the ratio of fructose to total sugars of peaches.