Characterization of Vaccinium cultivars: Horticultural and antioxidant profile

The horticultural traits and the content of polyphenolic antioxidants were analyzed, respectively, for 56 and 38 blueberry genotypes. Blueberry is a relatively new crop in Northern Italy and a systematic evaluation of the cultivars was necessary in order to identify accessions that were best adapted to the environment and to characterize the germplasm collection. The genotypes were evaluated using a ranking scale for the traits of interest and a panel test for fruit quality was conducted. Horticultural data, together with data from the panel test, indicated that the cvs. Chandler and Ozarkblue were promising. Legacy and Jubilee were highly rated. Blueberry extracts were analyzed for total polyphenols reactive to Folin-Ciocalteu; hydroxycinnamates were analyzed by HPLC-UV and anthocyanins by LC-ESI-MS in positive mode. Cultivars and species varied notably in the content of polyphenols in the berries. Anthocyanins were the antioxidant quantitatively most abundant. Both anthocyanin content and pattern varied by cultivar. Blueberry anthocyanins are a complex mixture of 25 compounds mainly constituted by the 3-glycosides (galactoside, glucoside and arabinoside) of delphinidin, cyanidin, petunidin, peonidin and malvidin, with the presence of some acylated forms of possible taxonomic relevance. Hydroxycinnamic acids are the second major class, almost exclusively constituted by trans-chlorogenic acid.