FRESENIUS ENVIRONMENTAL BULLETIN, vol.31, no.1, pp.134-148, 2022 (SCI-Expanded)
In the last century, the worldwide proliferation of the use of rootstock in viticulture has been successful in preventing the damage that the phylloxera pest causes to cultivars of Vitis vinifera L., but there have been some adverse effects on the quality of grapevines. It is still not clearly known how the phytochemical composition of grapevines grown using rootstock differs from that of vines grown on their own roots. Four different commonly used American grapevine rootstocks (41 B, 99 R, 110 R, and 1103 P) and the original roots of the Banazi Karasi grape cultivar were used in this study conducted to determine the effects of rootstocks on the phytochemical composition of fresh grapes in grafted grapevine cultivars. In addition, the effects of vinestock age on the phytochemical composition of fresh grapes were examined. Fresh grape samples taken from young (5 years old) and old (40 years old) vinestocks grown on their own roots were examined to identify the effects of vinestock age. The findings revealed that the rootstocks generally affected (positively or negatively) the composition of phenolic compounds of fresh grapes, but this effect was not observed for gallic acid. Rutin and quercetin significantly decreased with rootstock usage in contrast to the vinestocks grown on their own roots. It was determined that rootstocks significantly decreased the resveratrol contents of fresh grapes, although their effects on antioxidant capacity differed. However, total phenolic compounds and glucose, fructose, and tartaric acid compositions of fresh grapes did not change based on rootstock usage. It was determined that the older the vinestocks are, the more naringin and phloridzin are present in the compositions of fresh grapes, but other compounds tend to decrease significantly.