Abstract: The main fruit nutritional traits (single fruit mass, pH, and the contents of total sugar, reducing sugar, total acid, vitamin C and anthocyanin) of 30 cultivars of Chinese cherry (Prunus pseudocerasus Lindl.) were measured and analyzed by principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA) in order to select superior cultivars. The results showed significant differences in fruit nutritional traits among different cultivars of Chinese cherry. The coefficients of variation (CV) of single fruit mass and the contents of total sugar, reducing sugar, and vitamin C (VC) were larger than those of other indices, and a simple correlation was observed between some nutritional indices. PCA analysis showed that the first principal component 1 (PC1) and the second principal component (PC2) presented a characteristic value greater than 1, and their cumulative variance contribution rate was 67.718%, suggesting that both PCs could reflect most of the information about the original variables. Cluster analysis divided the 30 cultivars into five types, which differed greatly in fruit nutritional traits. In general, our results showed that the cultivars Red Honey, 13-33 and Qin-Lin had the best quality, and they could be utilized directly or modified for better fruit quality.

Key words: Prunus pseudocerasus Lindl., fruit nutritional traits, principal component analysis, cluster analysis