Sugar and Polyphenolic Diversity in Floral Nectar of Cherry

Abstract

Cherries (Prunus avium L. and Prunus cerasus L.) are economically important fruit species in the temperate region. Both are entomophilous fruit species, thus need pollinators to give high yields. Since cherry’s flower is easy-to-reach, bees and other pollinators can smoothly collect nectar as a reward for doing transfer of pollen to receptive stigma. Nectar in cherry is usually attractive for insects, especially to honey bee (Apis mellifera) who is the most common pollinator. Nectar is predominantly an aqueous solution of sugars, proteins, and free amino acids among which sugars are the most dominant. Trace amounts of lipids, organic acids, iridoid glycosides, minerals, vitamins, alkaloids, plant hormones, non-protein amino, terpenoids, glucosinolates, and cardenolides can be found in nectar too. Cherry flower may secrete nectar for 2–4 days and, depending on the cultivar, produces up to 10 mg nectar with sugar concentration from 28% to 55%. Detailed chemical analysis of cherry nectar described in this chapter is focused on sugar and phenolic profile in sour cherry. The most abounded sugars in cherry nectar was fructose, glucose, and sucrose, while arabinose, rhamnose, maltose, isomaltose, trehalose, gentiobiose, turanose, panose, melezitose, maltotriose, isomaltotriose, as well as the sugar alcohols glycerol, erythritol, arabitol, galactitol, and mannitol are present as minor constituents. Regarding polyphenolics, rutin was the most abundant phenolic compound followed by naringenin and chrysin. Cherry cultivars showed different chemical composition of nectar which implies that its content is cultivar dependent.