LAUSR

BACKGROUND Grape berries produce significant amounts of phenolic compounds as an essential qualitative factor due to their nutritional value and effect on berry color and texture. Salicylic acid (SA) and its derivatives usually lead to enhancement of phenolic content in plant tissues. So, the present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of different levels of SA (0.0, 50.0, 100.0 and 200.0 mM) on the production of phenolic compounds and the derivatives (anthocyanin and flavonoid) in the grape berries with emphasizing on malvidin-3-O-β glucoside as a regular anthocyanin in red grapes. RESULT The obtained results showed that total phenolics content were significantly enhanced in SA treated (100.0 and 200.0 mM) berries compared to untreated ones. Also, SA treatment at all concentrations considerably improved entire anthocyanins content in the berries and, as compared with that of untreated berries, accumulation of malvidin-3-O-β glucoside was higher in salicylic acid treated fruits; especially 200.0 mM concentration caused approximately two times more malvidin-3-O-β glucoside than the control. DPPH scavenging capacity of the fruits treated with SA were significantly higher than those of the untreated berries. The activity of PAL in SA treated fruits significantly increased as compared to the untreated clusters. CONCLUSION A general evaluation of the current results leads us to the conclusion that SA is a suitable and recommendable treatment for improving and increasing phenolics and antioxidant capacity of grape berries. Therefore, spraying grape berries at pre-veraison stage with SA could be a convenient strategy to considerably increase quality and nutritional value of grape berries. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.