BACKGROUND

Jujube fruit is eaten mostly fresh, but may be dried (Chinese dates and tea) or processed into confectionary recipes in bread, cakes, compotes, and candy. Given that the quality of jujube available on the market differs on account of various factors such as geographical environment, cultivar, processing conditions, and storage conditions, and that, for consumers, flavour and nutrition properties of jujube represent the major parameters in determining the quality of jujube, the main goal of this study were to determine the main physico-chemical properties of jujube fruits, sugars and organic acids profiles, protein, mineral constituents, volatile composition and sensory profile of jujube fruits. This would allow breeders to select cultivars with higher levels of nutrients and also enable increasing dietary intake by consumers.

RESULTS

Investigations showed that jujube fruit weight ranged from 4.8 to 29.3 g fruit(-1) . Four sugars (glucose, fructose, sucrose and sorbitol) and four organic acids (citric, malic, ascorbic and succinic acids) were identified and quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography in jujube fruits. Potassium, calcium and magnesium were the major mineral constituents in jujube fruits. Fifteen volatiles compounds were found in the aroma profile of jujube fruits (nine were aldehydes, three terpenes, one ester, one ketone and one linear hydrocarbon).

CONCLUSION

The results showed that Spanish jujube cultivars studied are a good source of vitamin C, and they have a low content of Na. The jujube cultivar with the most appreciated quality by consumers was GAL; the GAL fruits were sweet, crunchy, and had high intensities of jujube ID and apple flavour a long after-taste. Therefore, jujube grown in Spain has a great potential to be exploited for functional foods. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry.