سید مرتضی زاهدی

The physical and biochemical traits are responsible for the quality of almonds. Therefore, both should be considered in breeding programs aiming to search for almonds of high quality for sustainable production. The aim of this work was to analyze several important physical and biochemical traits in the kernels of 10 native Iranian wild almond accessions grown naturally in different locations in Iran to identify their potential in breeding programs. The studied parameters included nut and kernel dry weights, kernel percentage, shell cracking strength of nuts, contents of microminerals (iron, zinc, manganese and copper) and macrominerals (potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, calcium and sodium), and levels of fatty acids (palmitic, stearic, oleic and linoleic), total phenolics and α-tocopherol in kernels. Principal component and multilinear regression analyses were done to observe the variations of almonds based on physical and biochemical traits. Principal component analysis showed 4 clustering groups of studied almonds based on physical and biochemical traits, explaining 67.2% of the total variance. Results showed differences between the accessions in terms of physical properties of nuts and kernels, as well as in the evaluated biochemical traits. East Azerbaijan and Fars accessions had the highest linoleic, palmitic and stearic acid contents and the lowest oleic acid content, while Qom accession had the highest oleic acid and the lowest palmitic, stearic and linoleic acid contents in kernels among all studied accessions. Results suggested that the naturally diverse accessions and/or environmental effects might be the reason(s) for the observed diversity in physical and biochemical traits.