Abstract: This study was designed to reveal the difference in fruit quality, antibacterial and antioxidant activity of different cultivars of Prunus mume. The cold-resistant cultivars were screened for their fruit quality in order to provide the basis for the breeding of both ornamental and edible cultivars and the utilization of Prunus mume fruits. The quality characteristics (appearance and eating quality), and antibacterial and antioxidant activities of 8 cultivars were evaluated. The phenolic compounds were separated and detected by high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS), and the correlations between fruit quality traits and antibacterial and antioxidant activities were analyzed. The results showed significant differences in fruit quality traits of different cultivars of Prunus mume. ‘Dan Fenghou’, ‘Fenye Fenghou’, ‘Wuzangye’ and ‘Fei Lve’ had better fruit quality than other cultivars. The contents of total phenolics and total flavonoids were the highest in ‘Fenghou’, ‘Wuzangye’ and ‘Fei Lve’ and five phenolic compounds were isolated from the three cultivars, including catechin, rosmarinic acid eriodictyol, syringic acid and rutin. The antibacterial activity and antioxidant activity were correlated with the contents of total phenolics and total flavonoids. Therefore, ‘Wuzangye’ and ‘Fei Lve’ were selected as better cold-resistant cultivars for both ornamental and food purposes and could have potential applications as natural sources of antioxidants or functional food ingredients.

Key words: fruits of Prunus mume, quality characteristics, antibacterial, antioxidant, both ornamental and food purposes