When flavonoid data results were averaged across the sampling areas, Crimson Sweet was the cv with the highest amount (176.1 mg RE/kg fw). Similar values were obtained for the newly selected P503 cv (175.2 mg RE/kg fw) and for Giza cv (174.9 mg RE/kg fw), which did not differ statistically from the latter. The lowest values were recorded for Aramis (111.3 mg RE/kg fw), P403 (113.0 mg RE/kg fw) and Dumara (118.4 mg RE/kg fw) cvs. To our knowledge, this is the first report on flavonoids in watermelon cvs and provides evidence that watermelon constitutes a significant source of flavonoids, similar or even superior to red-ripe tomatoes. In fact, the amounts of flavonoids measured in the
watermelon cvs under analysis are higher than the average content reported for tomatoes (50 mg RE/kg fw) by Stewart et al. (2000) and in the range of the values reported for cherry and highpigment tomato cvs (134–622 mg RE/kg fw) by Lenucci et al. (2006). Flavonoids were significantly different in the sampling areas of all the cvs studied (P < 0.01).