A comparison of major taste- and health-related compounds among newly released Italian strawberry cultivars

Strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) is one of the most popular edible fruit worldwide of which consumption constantly increases with the development of new cultivars available at almost all season. Besides being delicious, strawberry fruits are also an important source of a wide variety of nutritive compounds such as sugars, vitamins and minerals, as well as bioactive compounds such as phenolics. Nutritive composition of sugar, organic acid, and phenolic compounds is very diversely distributed in different strawberry cultivars. Considering that sugars and organic acids significantly affect the sensorial quality of strawberry fruit, their optimal ratio combined with phenolic compounds should be accomplished in order to obtain the high quality fruit. Fruit of six strawberry cultivars newly introduced from Italy (‘Aprika’, ‘Sibilla’, ‘Garda’, ‘Premy‘, ‘Jeny’, ‘Laetitia’) were characterized in relation to the total phenolic content and antioxidant capacity, vitamin C, soluble solids content, titratable acidity, as well as concentration of individual sugars and organic acids. ‘Jeny’ was the dominant strawberry cultivar in terms of glucose (4.34 g 100 g^‑1 fresh weight – FW), fructose (4.68 g 100 g^‑1 FW), malic (2.93 mg g^‑1 FW) and shikimic (21.55 μg g^‑1 FW) acid content, while ‘Laetitia‘ was distinguished among all other cultivars regarding total antioxidant capacity (3.99 mg AsA eq g^‑1 FW), citric acid (6.86 mg g^‑1 FW) and vitamin C (56.32 mg 100 g^‑1 FW). Hence ‘Laetitia’, as the best ranking cultivars according to the content of nutritive compounds with proven bioactive effects, could be recommended for consumption in relation to the consumer preferences concerning human health and wellbeing.