PEACH (Prunus persica (L.) Batsch)

Peach is extensively grown in temperate areas, in both hemispheres, covering 1.5. million. ha for a total amount of about 18. million tons. It is the third most important temperate tree fruit, behind apple and pear. Over 90% of the production is for the fresh market, while the canning industry requires adapted cultivars with specific features of texture, firmness, and flesh color. The fruit shows a large variability in term of flesh texture, peel, and flesh color and shape. The most important nutritional features are total soluble sugars (10-20% on FW), yellow pigments, xanthophylls, and carotenoids (provitamin A factors), and anthocyanins, in either white or yellow fruit. The latter are strong antioxidants, able to control serious human diseases. On the contrary, ascorbic acid content in peach is very low. White-flesh peaches account for a higher amount of volatile (hexanale, decalactone) compounds responsible for the typical aroma, compared to the yellow ones.