Biochemical and antioxidant activities, organic acid contents, fatty acid compositions, mineral element contents, and carbohydrate contents of sumac (Rhus coriaria L.) accessions found in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Türkiye

Abstract

The genus Rhus, belonging to the Anacardiaceae family, encompasses over 250 species. This study aimed to evaluate the biochemical and antioxidant activities, organic acid contents, fatty acid compositions, mineral element contents, and carbohydrate contents of 100 sumac accessions from Hatay province. Total phenolics varied from 89.46 to 316.33 mg GAE/g DW, total flavonoids ranged from 1.99 to 9.79 mg QE/g DW, and total antioxidant activity was between 24.33 % and 87.66 %. The dominant components identified were malic acid (1255.59–2659.47 mg kg^–1), oleic acid (27.33–59.12 %), phosphorus (5869.69–7122.58 mg kg^–1), and xylan (17.98–27.24 %). In the principal component analysis, the first nineteen components explained 70.16 % of the total variance. According to Ward's method and Euclidean distance, the UPGMA dendrogram revealed four subgroups (A1, A2, B1, and B2) with 24, 28, 14, and 34 accessions, respectively. Significant correlations were found between fatty acid compositions and nutrient minerals. The identified high-quality sumac accessions (‘S47’, ‘S66’, ‘S100’, ‘S14’, ‘S97’, ‘S82’, ‘S93’, ‘S94’, ‘S43’, ‘S88’, ‘S2’, ‘S50’, ‘S20’, ‘S71’, ‘S78’, ‘S58’, ‘S48’, ‘S90’, ‘S23’, ‘S95’, ‘S91’, ‘S13’, ‘S74’, ‘S72’, and ‘S28’, respectively) are poised to contribute significantly to breeding studies aimed at developing more nutritious sumac cultivars. These accessions may also serve as antioxidant-rich products in the food and health sectors, enhancing agricultural production and economic benefits.