Assessment of Genetic Diversity of Edible Honeysuckle Monitored through RAPD in Relative to Bioactive Substances

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze the genetic diversity of selected cultivars and clones of Lonicera sp. (edible honeysuckle) from two countries with different climatic and soil conditions. Accordingly, the determination of total polyphenols content (TPC) and total antioxidant activity (TAA) in fruits of Lonicera sp. in 2018–2019 was performed. Applied statistical methods evaluating TPC and TAA were: correlation and regression, ANOVA, and agglomerative hierarchical clustering. The neighbor-joining method and gel images analysis (PyElph software, Pavel and Vasile, Bucharest, Romania) were used for genetic analysis. The average TPC of all cultivars and clones was 5.32 mg L−1 in the year 2018 and 3.78 mg L−1 in 2019. The average TAA values of all samples in 2018 were 8.24 mg L−1, and 9.27 mg L−1 in 2019. Statistically significant correlations between years and cultivars and clones were found. Based on the lengths and number of fragments by random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD)-PCR’s, it was found that ‘clone 5’ and ‘clone 7’ were genetically close to the grown cultivars from the Czech Republic. Therefore, edible honeysuckle fruits are a valuable source of important nutrients for the human body and its health.

The Elucidation of Total Polyphenols, Individual Phenolic Compounds, Antioxidant Activity of Three Underutilized Fruit Species—Black Crowberry, Honeyberry, European Cranberry with Their Accumulation

“…Therefore, this paper is in accordance with the research papers [4,21,25], that pointed to the fact that polyphenols represent the major group of secondary metabolites of black crowberry fruit and they mostly contributed to the antioxidant activity [3,6,7,12]. The TPC content together with antioxidant activity of fruit is in accordance with the previous studies of Jurikova et al [50] and have been significantly influenced by the origin of berries samples [51][52][53][54].…”

“…Flavonoids of fruit European cranberry, honeyberry (especially catechin and rutin) represented the predominant group of polyphenols that have been in accordance with research studies of [51,52,55,56]. Results of chemical analyses are summed up in Table 2.…”

“…An exception was recorded in honeyberry samples, the quercetin content reached 12.18 ± 7.88 µg/g. In the same way [50,51,57] recorded, in less known fruit species, the quercetin content greater than 10 mg/kg was only in samples of Lonicera kamtschatica. According to [20] the edible honeysuckle berries reached up to the high level of flavonoids (2 g per 100 g of dry fruit weight) that represent the similar concentration abundance in some blueberries.…”