Psidium guajava cv. Black guava: A potential source for biofortification in guava

Guava (Psidium guajava L.) is popularly known as the ‘Super fruit’ and ‘Apple of the Tropics’. The colour of guava pulp holds significant economic importance and has been a primary focus in most of the guava improvement programs globally. Psidium guajava cv. Black guava is unique because of its purplish peel and pulp colour. The present investigation aimed to determine the specific pigments accountable for the purplish pulp colour of Black guava. Spectrophotometric analysis revealed that it had maximum total anthocyanin content (9.663 mg/ 100g), followed by total carotenoids (0.730 mg/ 100g) and lycopene (0.517 mg/ 100g). Hence, further LC-MS analysis was carried out to identify distinct anthocyanin compounds. Here, we reported for the first time the presence of delphinidin-3-O-glucoside, cyanidin-3-O-glucoside, and petunidin-3-O-glucoside, responsible for the purplish pulp of Psidium guajava cv. Black guava. Also, the fruits are round-shaped, crispy in texture with no puffiness, and moderately juicy with total soluble solids content of 14.50 °B and 13.97 % total sugars. Therefore, Psidium guajava cv. Black guava is a potential germplasm source to be utilized in future breeding programs to develop a biofortified anthocyanin-rich guava cultivar.