Diversity in phenolic compounds, biochemical and pomological characteristics of Arbutus unedo fruits

Abstract

Strawberry trees (Arbutus unedoL.) are naturally grown in particular Black Sea and Mediterranean regions of Turkey with great diversity due to continuous seed propagation for centuries. The trees differ in terms of most of the horticultural characteristics. We investigated the phenolic compounds and the biochemical and pomological characteristics of the fruits of eight strawberry tree selections naturally grown in the western part of Turkey. Significant differences were found among the genotypes in terms of their phenolic compounds and their biochemical and pomological characteristics. Among soluble sugars, fructose (11.63 g 100 g−1) was the dominant sugar, followed by glucose (6.10 g 100 g−1) and sucrose (1.44 g 100 g−1) for all the genotypes. Positive correlation was found between fruit weight and soluble sugar content. Malic acid was the major organic acid (0.67-2.33 g 100 g−1), and the second major organic acid in strawberry tree fruits was citric acid (0.25-0.87 g 100 g−1). Vitamin C content was an average of 56.22 g 100 g−1for the eight genotypes. Among phenolic compounds, gallic acid was dominant (1.62-7.29 mg 100 g−1), followed by chlorogenic acid (1.23-3.14 mg 100 g−1), on an average basis.

Phytochemical Components and Bioactivity Assessment among Twelve Strawberry (Arbutus unedo L.) Genotypes Growing in Morocco Using Chemometrics

“…The third component represents 13.87% of the total variation, which is defined essentially by total phenols (0.57), condensed tannins (0.77), total anthocyanins (0.80), cyanidin-3-glucoside (0.64), and cyanidin-3-arabinoside (0.64). Generally, these results were in accordance with those reported in previous strawberry tree biochemical studies [ 30 , 33 ]. They have reported that the biochemical attributes are important in order to evaluate the variation in traits of strawberry tree genotypes.…”

“…Generally, these results were in accordance with those reported in previous strawberry tree biochemical studies [ 30 , 33 ]. These studies indicated that high diversity in biochemical traits could be used as an efficient marker system to discriminate between strawberry tree genotypes, comparing our results to other fruits such as sweet cherry [ 44 ].…”

“…The value of ABTS assay ranged from 1.75 to 19.58 mg ascorbic acid equivalent/g DW, with an overall mean of 7.49 mg ascorbic acid equivalent/g DW. Gündoğdu et al [ 33 ] analyzed the antioxidant capacity (ABTS) of Turkish strawberry tree fruits. They found values ranged between 17.51 and 30.06 µmol TE/g.…”

Exploring Antioxidant Activity, Organic Acid, and Phenolic Composition in Strawberry Tree Fruits (Arbutus unedo L.) Growing in Morocco

“…The value of ABTS assay ranged from 2.25 to 19.58 mg ascorbic acid equivalent/g DW. Gündogdu et al [56] and Colak [20] recorded the antioxidant capacity (ABTS) values ranged between 17.51 and 30.06 µmol TE/g DW and between 18.07 and 33.41 µmol TE/g DW in Turkish A. unedo fruits. This difference was most probably due to differences in the extraction method and solvent used.…”

“…Antioxidant activity was widely studied on strawberry tree fruits by using different antioxidant determining methods such as ABTS, TEAC, FRAP, DPPH, etc., and all studies indicated that A. unedo fruits had high antioxidant activity and antioxidant activity found to be genotype dependent. Moreover, the studies indicated that type of extraction of phenols present in fruits of A. unedo also influenced the antioxidant activity [7,8,14,39,[51][52][53]55,56]. In addition, several reports showed that strawberry tree fruit is a highly potential antioxidant plant compared to other fruit, such as red and green grape and apples [57], pomace [58], pomegranate [59], grape [60,61], which can be linked to the high phenolic composition of strawberry tree fruits in polyphenols.…”