Researchers claim that the Pendragon apple, which has been grown in England since the 12th century, contains higher levels of plant chemicals linked to health benefits - including reducing inflammation and lowering blood sugar - than other varieties.

The apple came top in a test of 12 organic and three normally grown apples, beating rivals such as Golden Delicious, Royal Gala and Cox.

“Of all the organic varieties, Pendragon was the best apple variety and contained seven of the eight kinds of healthy components at the highest levels,” said pharmacist Michael Wakeman, who led the study and presented his findings to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s annual conference in Manchester.

“In contrast, the non-organic apples consistently had low levels … in both the flesh and the peel,” said Mr Wakeman, who works for Eden Healthcare Technologies in Leicestershire.

Runners up to Pendragon were an organically grown variety of Golden Delicious, a cider apple called Collogett Pippin, and old Cornish and Devon apple varieties, Ben’s Red and Devonshire Quarrenden.

They were tested for a range of plant compounds which have been linked to reducing cholesterol, inflammation and blood sugar levels as well as potential anti-cancer properties.

Mr Wakeman said that the absence of pesticides could mean that organic apples produce larger amounts of many of the compounds to protect themselves from infection.

His findings come just weeks after the Food Standards Agency found little, if any, nutritional difference between organic and non-organic foods.

Mr Wakeman said: “This research confirms that while some measures of organic versus non-organic food benefits might appear equivocal, more sophisticated analysis of compounds which are newly recognised as being of importance to good health do show a significant difference.”

The compounds are disappearing from many people’s diet because of modern farming techniques designed to produce sweeter fruits in more uniform shapes, he added.

The Pendragon is not available to buy in supermarkets and had to be sourced by the researchers from a private orchard in Cornwall which specialises in conserving older varieties of the fruit.

The other organic apple varieties tested also included Robbie graham seedling (bramley), two types of Boulder seedling, Gala, Hockings Green, Nye, Queen Cox, another cider apple called Torr Hill (Cider apple).

The three non-organic varieties included in the study were Golden Delicious, Royal Gala and Cox.

The apples were tested for chemicals called phenols.

Studies have suggested that flavanoids, a type of phenol, could protect against the development of lung cancer as well as reduce inflammation.