The phenotypic traits of 63 Asian plum varieties were investigated for three years to select those with superior qualities for breeding. Eight morphological characteristics of the flowers and fruits (e.g., stigma position, fruit skin, and flesh color) were evaluated. Phenological characteristics (e.g., blooming time and ripening time) were also monitored. Being useful traits for breeding, fruit quality factors (e.g., fruit weight, skin color, flesh color, soluble solids content, and titratable acidity) were evaluated as well. The majority of the fruits were cordate (36%) and circular (23%) in shape. Approximately 78% of the varieties showed a red skin color, whereas 67% had yellowish fruit flesh. Fruit ripening occurred from June 28th to September 5th, spanning 69 days. The average fruit weight and soluble solids content were 77.2 g and 12.2 °Brix, respectively. Regarding correlations among the characteristics, the most significant correlation coefficients were for the ripening time and fruit size parameters. Such information of Asian plum varieties will be useful for future breeding programs.

This study was carried out to optimize the filtration, clarification, anti-browning processing conditions of clear pear juice and to investigate changes in antioxidant activity of pear juice produced through different heating treatment. For the filtration with cheese cloth, filter paper, or centrifugation (10 min at 3,000 rpm), the pear juice was most efficiently filtered with centrifugation because it showed the highest lightness (L value) and lowest yellowness (a value). Among various clarifying agents, 1% of gelatin or bentonite clarified effectively pear juice but tannin or egg albumin did not. Among anti-browning agents (0.1%) like L-ascorbic acid, NaCl or citric acid, L-ascorbic acid prevented the browning of pear juice with the lowest browning index value (2.62), compared to that of NaCl (2.74), or citric acid (2.87). Fructose, sucrose, glucose and sorbitol were present in the pear juice, the fructose and glucose contents increased but that of sucrose decreased in the heated pear juice. The total polyphenol content of the heated pear juice significantly increase, and did the total flavonoid contents in the clear and heated pear juice. The DPPH radical scavenging activity and nitrate scavenging activity were higher in the clear and heated pear juice than in the fruit crush.

A new early maturing satsuma mandarin (Citrus unshiu Marc.) ‘'Haryejosaeng’' was developed as a nucellar seedling selection of ‘'Tachima Wase’' (C. unshiu Marc.) that was crossed with C. natsudaidai Hayata at the National Institute of Subtropical Agriculture in Jeju island in 1992. The ‘'Jegam ga No. 2’', a first selection from the seedlings fruited in 2001 was finally named “"Haryejosaeng”" through field evaluation trials at three locations in Jeju island from 2003 to 2004. ‘'Haryejosaeng’' produces seedless fruit maturing in early November, and has higher soluble solids and lower acidity than ‘'Miyagawa Wase’', the leading early-maturing satsuma mandarin cultivar in Jeju island. Fruit weight is moderate at about 80～90 g and its shape is compressed-oblate globose with a light orange color. The rind thickness of about 2 mm provides easy peeling. The flesh shows light orange colored and contains 10 to 11 Brix and 1 to 1.1% acidity when mature. Tree shows vigorous growth and spreading thornless twigs. Alternate bearing is similar to ‘iyagawa Wase’ ‘aryejosaeng’is susceptible to citrus scab disease and melanose, but resistant to citrus canker.