MORPHOLOGICAL AND BIOCHEMICAL DIVERSITY IN Rosa SPECIES

The Rosa L. is one of the widely grown plants in the world and its flowers and fruits has been used in different parts of the world for centuries. Wild grown Rosa plants is one of the most important element of the natural landscape and used as rootstock for roses for centuries as well. In this study the main flower, shrub and fruit characteristics of a large number of Rosa canina L. and Rosa dumalis Bechst. genotypes naturally found in Ardahan province of Turkey has been studied. All plants found very health conditions and indicated their strong defense mechanism of the genera to harsh abiotic and biotic conditions. The majority of genotypes had attractive flowers. The genotypes exhibited fruit mass between 2.81 g to 4.60 g. SSC (soluble solid content), vitamin C, total phenolic, total flavonoid, total carotenoid, and total anthocyanin content of the genotypes ranged from 15.8-20.6%, 502-714 mg per 100 g FW (fresh weight), 405-507 mg gallic acid equivalent per 100 g FW, 1.02-2.00 mg per g FW, 8.40-13.30 mg per g FW and 4.35-6.98 mg cyanidin-3-glucoside equivalent per liter, respectively. Antioxidant activity was determined between 22.3-30.9 mg ascorbic acid equivalent per g fresh weight. Chlorogenic acid was the major phenolic acids in fruits of Rosa ecotypes. Our results indicated promising perspectives for usage of R. canina and R. dumalis fresh fruits studied with considerable levels of bioactive compounds.