Morphological and Chemical Analysis of 16 Avocado Accessions (Persea americana) From China by Principal Component Analysis and Cluster Analysis

The physicochemical composition of avocado fruit has been well reported, but there is little detail on Chinese native avocado varieties. The present study investigated the morphological characteristics, oil contents, and fatty acid compositions of 16 avocado accessions grown in the tropical and subtropical regions of China. Eight fatty acids were identified and quantified by GC-MS. The major fatty acids of avocado pulp were palmitic, oleic, and linoleic acids, accounting for 78-91% of the total fatty acids content. The analysis of one-way variance (ANOVA) of the data revealed morphological and chemical differences between most of avocado accessions. Moreover, 16 avocado accessions were distinguished through a PCA scores scatter plot and cluster analysis based on fatty acid profiles. The results identified some remarkable characteristics of avocado accessions from different places of collection.