2017 ASHS Annual Conference

Jujube (Z. jujuba), which originated in China, has great potential for commercial production in the Southwestern United States. Jujube fruit has been considered as a functional food with nutritional and high medicinal value. Cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) content in jujube fruit was the highest yet found in either plant or animal tissues. cAMP is an important “second messenger” in many biological processes in the human body. More than 40 diseases, including cancer, hypertension, coronary disease, myocardial infarction and cardiogenic shock, are related to cAMP metabolism. The cAMP content in jujube fruits of different cultivars, development stages and organs cultivated at the New Mexico State University Sustainable Agriculture Sciences Center, Alcalde, NM were determined by high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC). The results showed considerable variation with cAMP content ranging from 21.1 to 362.4 µg/g (dry weight), depending on the cultivar, fruit development stage and organ. During fruit development, the cAMP contents were lowest at the green fruit stage and increased to their highest levels at the mature stage in all nine cultivars tested. The cAMP contents in leaves were highest early in the growing season and then decreased and reached the lowest level at the final fruit maturation stage. Mature fruit of ‘Don Polenski’ and ‘Lang’, with similar characteristics, had the highest cAMP contents of 362.4 and 350.9 µg/g DW, respectively. The average fruit cAMP contents of 34 cultivars at mature stage was 189.9 µg/g DW. These results indicate that ‘Don Polenski’ and ‘Lang’ are good germplasm for cAMP research for future functional foods. Jujube fruit in mature stage and leaves in earlier stage are good sources of cAMP.