LAUSR

Sweet oranges are produced on large scale all over the world and demanded due to less number of seeds and are better juice quality. A study was carried out with the objective to characterize promising sweet orange cultivars for better quality fruits production under different agro-climatic conditions of Punjab (Pakistan). Fruits of three promising sweet orange (Citrus sinensis L. Osbeck) cultivars viz. ‘Blood Red’, ‘Musambi’ and were harvested from commercial citrus groves at five different locations. Starting from Multan, in the direction of increasing altitude, four more sites viz. Sahiwal, Faisalabad, Sargodha and Chakwal were selected after every 100–150 km distance. Fruits were evaluated in terms of different physical and biochemical characters. Results showed significant influence of climatic conditions on physico-chemical properties of the cultivars at all the locations. Fruits harvested from Multan and Sahiwal showed higher fruit weight, diameter and peel weight. More juicy fruits with higher vitamin C content were produced under mild temperature environmental conditions of Chakwal. Overall, ‘Musambi’ fruits had more total soluble solids and reducing and total sugars. ‘Musambi’ was found to be good source of bioactive compounds i. e. vitamin C and total phenolic content, had the maximum antioxidant activity as compared to ‘Blood Red’ and ‘Succari’ and may be explored as potential cultivar in Sargodha and Chakwal.