Pigment Quantity and Quality Characteristics of Some Native Vitis rotundifolia Michx

¹ Department of Horticultural Science, Box 7609, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7609
² VPI&SU Southern Piedmont AES, P.O. Box 448, Blackstone, VA 23824
³ University of Arkansas, Fruit Substation, Route 2, Clarksville, AR 7283

Eighty-four wild selections of Vitis rotundifolia Michx. from Alabama, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Virginia were surveyed in 1987 for pigment quantity and quality. Both parameters had sufficient variability from which to identify superior selections. Total pigment ranged from 0.43 to 12.32 and averaged 4.91 mg/mL. All plants contained the 3,5-diglucosides of delphinidin (Dp), cyanidin (Cy), petunidin (Pt), peonidin (Pn), and malvidin (Mv) and percent ranged from 13.5% to 68.9%, 2.6% to 43.5%, 8.6% to 34.7%, 1.6% to 25.1%, and 0.8% to 30.0% total pigment, respectively. Nine selections produced the 3-monoglucosides of Dp, Cy, Pt, Pn, and Mv, pigments never reported in previous studies of V. rotundifolia. Cyanidin was found in all nine, Dp in five, and Pt, Pn, and Mv in three. Delphinidin was found in the greatest quantity ranging from 0.10 to 0.55 mg/mL. One selection, NC-67, had 30.6% of its pigment in the 3-monoglucoside form. NC-67 was re-analyzed in 1988 using HPLC, paper and thin-layer chromatography. Monoglucosides were detected by all three methods.

Key words: anthocyanin, browning, pigment, Vitis rotundifolia

Submitted on November 7, 1988