High-quality and high-phytonutrient watermelon fruits have strong market opportunities besides their health related benefits. Hence, investigating quality and nutritional related traits of watermelon genetic resources could provide important baseline data in breeding for increased lycopene content thereby increasing the marketability of watermelon. To this end, we have examined some fruit morphological traits and lycopene content of 105 genetic resources. Seeds, originally obtained from 22+ countries, were obtained from the National Agrobiodiversity Center, Jeonju, South Korea, grown in an experimental field and harvested at a fully mature stage. The size of pistil scar (SPS), the width of stripes (WS), weight of fruit (WF), length of fruit (LF), width of fruit (WIF), the thickness of pericarp (TP), soluble solids content (SSC), fruit shape in longitudinal section, ground color of skin, the intensity of the green color of skin, fruit shape at the apical part, grooving distribution, conspicuousness of stripes, and main color of the flesh were recorded on the field and inside laboratory and the lycopene was measured using spectrophotometric and HPLC methods. Watermelon fruits have shown a diverse morphological characters. Red and pink fleshed fruits dominated in the entire collections. Fruits with higher thickness of rind were found to exhibit less soluble solid content (SSC). Korean origin fruits were characterized by intermediate SSC while the United States of America (USA), Russia (RUS), Tajikistan (TJK), Turkmenistan (TKM), Taiwan (TWN), and Uruguay (URY) originated fruits had the highest SSC. The lycopene content varied between 41.37 and 182.82 ㎍/g, 2.81 and 163.72 ㎍/g, and 3.54 and 255.47 ㎍/g using HPLC, UV-Vis spectrophotometer, and microplate reader spectrophotometer, respectively. Red- and pink-fleshed fruits had the highest levels of lycopene content compared to the yellow- and orange-fleshed. Lycopene content had a significant positive correlation with SSC, however, no correlations were detected between lycopene and other quantitative fruit morphological characters. Our study demonstrated high diversity exists in fruit morphological traits and lycopene content of the germplasm collections which provide beneficial baseline data for a future breeding program and utilization of watermelon germplasm collections in gene banks for the maintenance and improvement of the current levels of production, marketability, and health-related benefit of watermelon fruits.

The objectives of this study were to evaluate total phenolic content (TPC) and individual phenolic compounds in leaves of perilla genetic resources, assess whether they could be used as distinguishing factor among germplasms, and evaluate their relationship with some quantitative and qualitative morphological characters. TPC and individual phenolic compounds were determined using Folin-Ciocalteu method and UPLC-PDA system, respectively. Wide variations in TPC (7.99 to 133.70 ㎎GAE/g DE), rosmarinic acid (ND to 21.05 ㎎/g DE), caffeic acid (ND to 1.17 ㎎/g DE), apigenin- 7-O-diglucuronide (ND to 2.21 ㎎ luteolin equivalent (㎎LUE)/g DE), scutellarein-7-O-glucuronide (ND to 5.25 ㎎ LUE/g DE), and apigenin-7-O-glucuronide (ND to 2.81 ㎎ LUE/g DE) were observed. Intensities of green pigment at abaxial and adaxial leaf surfaces were positively correlated with phenolic compounds whereas leaf length and width had negative correlation. Purple pigmented accessions were shorter in leaf length and width but exhibited higher amount of phenolic compounds compared to green pigmented accessions in most cases. Leaf shape was not related with content of phenolic compounds, color of leaves, and length/width of leaves. TPC and individual phenolic compounds along with morphological characters could be useful distinguishing factors for perilla genetic resources.

This study was conducted to investigate the food value of Cudrania tricuspidata at its various maturation stages. The pH, total acid and reducing sugar contents of its fruit juice were determined to have been 4.2～5.1, 1.4～2.0% and 5.4～8.6%, respectively. The general chemical components of its fruit were observed as 76～80% moisture, 2.2～3.5% crude protein, 1.7～2.9% crude fat, 0.8～1.2% ash and 14.5～16.4% carbohydrate. Its free sugar, glucose and fructose contents were determined. The fructose contents of both its ripened and over-ripened fruits were higher than their glucose contents. Organic acids such as oxalic acid, citric acid, tartaric acid, malic acid and succinic acid were detected, and the concentration of the malic acid and the succinic acid were found to have been most abundant. The K content was higher than the amounts of other minerals, such as Ca, Fe, K, Mg, Na and P. Its vitamin C and the total amount of its dietary fiber were 127.5～149.2 mg% and 22.7～38.7%, respectively. Its insoluble dietary fiber content was higher than its soluble dietary fiber content. Its total polyphenol and flavonoid content were 18.9～19.6 mg% and 40.9～48.2 mg%, respectively.