A comparison of major taste- and health-related compounds of Vaccinium berries

Abstract

The chemical fruit composition, phenolic profile, and corresponding total antioxidant activity of bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) and 2 commercial blueberry cultivars (Vaccinium corymbosum) were analyzed. Results from this study showed that cultivar Berkeley yielded the highest glucose and fructose contents (70.8 and 88.8 mg/g FW, respectively), and the sweetness index expressed a similar trend, achieving the highest value for cultivar Berkeley (279.2). Citric acid was the major organic acid in the berries tested. V myrtillus yielded a total organic acids value 2-fold higher (0.35 mg/g FW) as well as the highest vitamin C content (25.8 mg/100 g FW). Among the flavonols measured, myricetin was most abundant in V myrtillus (10.7 mu g/g FW), whereas the highest amounts of kaempferol and quercetin were detected in the blueberry cultivar Bluecrop (4.75 and 9.11 mu g/g FW, respectively). Despite the challenge of characterizing phenolic acids due to the complexity and natural variation in fruit composition, this study confirms that cultivars of V corymbosum are rich sources of chlorogenic acid, particularly cultivar Bluecrop (71.2 mu g/g FW). Nevertheless, total phenolics were higher in V myrtillus than in the cultivated blueberries, and consequently the highest level of total antioxidant capacity was recorded in wild bilberry (6.16 mg asc/g FW). This semicomprehensive study characterizes the fruit quality attributes and illustrates differences in the content of taste- and health-related compounds present in these Vaccinium berries.