High Altitude Is Beneficial for Antioxidant Components and Sweetness Accumulation of Rabbiteye Blueberry

Abstract

To better understand the effect of growing location on the phytochemical compounds and sensory properties of blueberry (Vaccinium spp.), here we investigated rabbiteye blueberry 'Brightwell' (Vaccinium ashei cv. 'Brightwell') grown in 10 locations of China. Significant differences in terms of total soluble solids, titratable acidity, flavonoids, phenols, as well as proanthocyanidins and anthocyanins, were found in the fruits (berries) of blueberry plants among the different sampled locations. Furthermore, their sensory properties, which evaluated by the electronic tongue method, also significantly differed among the 10 locations. The content of flavonoids, phenols, proanthocyanidins, and anthocyanins all had significant correlations with sensory properties, except that of aftertaste-astringency. A key finding to emerge was that blueberry plants grown at high altitude locations harbored a high content of total soluble solids, flavonoids, phenols, proanthocyanidins, and anthocyanins along with high scores for the sweetness. These results suggested cultivating blueberry at high altitude can produce fruit that not only possess pronounced beneficial health effects but also good taste.

Antioxidant Activity, Total Phenolic Content and Total Flavonoid Content in Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) Cultivars Grown in Northwest Spain under Different Environmental Conditions

“…The relationships between environmental conditions and varieties also affect the phytochemical compounds of fruits [ 27 ]. Neri et al [ 20 ] reported that different clones of the same variety might exhibit different chemical compositions.…”

Altitude as a determinant of fruit quality with emphasis on the Andean tropics of Colombia. A review.

“…Fremont, the orange color increased (Ayer & Shrestha, 2018) because of the mentioned parameter. The higher altitude was also responsible for a greater increase in the intensity of red color in strawberries (Pérez de Camacaro et al, 2017) and pomegranates (Al-Kalbani et al, 2021) from these two crops mentioned, have also been found in peaches (Karagiannis et al, 2016), blueberries (Zeng et al, 2020) and grapes (Oliveira et al, 2019) (Tab. 2).…”

“…The phytochemical compounds of fruits are considerably affected by climatic site conditions and the interaction between environmental conditions and varieties (Zeng et al, 2020). The environmental conditions of a particular site are crucial for fruit quality and are the basis for the development of commercial crops in a region or country (Fischer & Orduz-Rodríguez, 2012).…”

Quantification of Total Phenols, Tannins, Anthocyanins Content in Myrtus communis L. and Antioxidant Activity Evaluation in Function of Plant Development Stages and Altitude of Origin Site

“…Various climatic factors depend on altitude like visible radiation, UV radiation and air temperature [63]. Altitude affects the natural selection of plants genotype, of bioactive compounds, plants' physic-chemical characteristics, and sensory properties [64]. There is no agreement in the literature on the effects of altitude on antioxidant activity.…”