Amino Acid Profiles in Peach (Prunus persica L.) Fruit

Abstract

Amino acids play an interesting and important role in the metabolism of peaches. The objectives of this study were to investigate and compare amino acid profiles in peaches at harvest for future research about the resistance effects, nutritional value of amino acids in peaches and to produce high-quality peach wine. In the study, 10 peaches and nectarines, including white, yellow and red flesh varieties, were selected for amino acid concentration and composition by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Results showed sugar levels in nectarines were higher than in peaches in this study. High concentrations of total acids were found in “Tropic Prince”, “Yixianhong”, “NJN76” and “Hongrou1”. Malic acids had the highest concentrations, compared toquinic and citric acid concentrations. Total amino acids in yellow and white flesh varieties were over 1100 µg/g FW, while red flesh varieties had total amino acids below 750 µg/g FW. Asn was the highest concentration compared to other amino acids, with the high concentration of Asn in “Tropical Prince’ (3279.15 µg/g FW) and the lowest concentration in “Touxinhong” (559.60 µg/g FW). “Jinxia”, “Yuhua3” and “Chengxiang” had better amino acid scores compared with others, in particularly the lowest value in the red flesh varieties. Finally, according to PCA and the heatmaps, amino acids in “Chengxiang”had evident differences to other varieties, which showed the different amino acid concentrations and composition. Overall, the results of this study highlighted three yellow flesh and one white flesh varieties that had satisfactory concentrations and components of amino acid values. In addition, amino acids were the precursors of aroma compounds, so these differences between varieties werea new way to screen the potential varieties for producing high quality peach wines with the anticipated specific characteristics.