CROPPING AND CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF BLACK CURRANT (RIBES NIGRUM L.) CULTIVARS IN NORWAY

There has been increasing focus on the health benefits of fruits and berries in last years and several chemical components in both fresh and processed berries are believed to have significant effects in reducing chronic diseases. It is commonly known that blackcurrant and other berry species contain the very high content of health related components. The fruit yield and some chemical analyses of black currant fruit (soluble solids, titratable acids and L-ascorbic acid – vitamin C) as well as antioxidant activity (FRAP) are presented in this paper. An experiment with 15 new black currant cultivars and advanced selections from different international breeding programs was carried out for six seasons (2005-2010) at Bioforsk in the South-East of Norway (60°40’ N; 10°11’ E). Yield and soluble solids of fruits were recorded at harvest all years. The last five seasons berries of selected cultivars were analyzed for several chemical components. The berries were harvested at full maturity which was about the middle of August. Both yield and chemical composition varied significantly both between cultivars and years. Compared to most other species, the average content of vitamin C and antioxidant activity of black currant fruit showed very high values.