Fruit Developmental Studies Along with Bioactive Composition in Sapota Cultivars

Sapota (Manilkara achras (Mill.) Fosberg) is commonly known as sapodilla or chiku, one of the important commercial fruit crop of India. Under subtropical conditions of northwestern India, sapota takes almost 10–11 months to mature and the time of the harvest is not precise as variation in the rate of development among different sapota cultivars is observed. An investigation was conducted on nine years old plants of sapota cultivars Kalipatti, Cricket Ball, PKM‑1 and PKM‑5 grown at spacing of 9 × 9 m in college orchard, Punjab Agricultural University Ludhiana to assess fruit developmental behaviour and physico-chemical attributes along with bio-active compounds of different sapota cultivars. Fruit length and diameter was recorded after 30, 60, 90, 120, 150, 180, 210, 240, 270, 311 days after fruit set. Findings, revealed that the fruit length was recorded maximum in cultivar PKM‑5 compared to other sapota cultivars. Among four cultivars Kalipatti took 255 days to harvest and same number of days were also taken by PKM‑5 for maturity while Cricket Ball and PKM‑1 took 270 and 311 days respectively. Physico-chemical attributes like fruit weight, specific gravity, pulp weight, total soluble solids (TSS), total sugars and reducing sugars were recorded maximum in cultivar Kalipatti compared to other sapota cultivars. However, bioactive compounds like total phenolic content (TPC), total carotenoid content (TCC), ascorbic acid, antioxidant activity (AA) and essential minerals like potassium, calcium, phosphorus, iron, zinc and copper were recorded maximum in cultivar PKM‑5 compared to all other sapota cultivars.