Phenolics of Vaccinium berries and other fruit crops

The concentrations and profiles of phenolics of selected fruit crops common in the Western diet, including several Vaccinium species, were examined to better understand how these crops may be useful sources of phenolic phytochemicals. Vaccinium fruit had a high phenolic concentration compared to non-Vaccinium fruit. Some Vaccinium fruit were particularly rich in certain phenolic subgroups, especially anthocyanins and pro-anthocyanidins. Among the pro-anthocyanidin oligomers measured using fluorometric and mass spectroscopic detection, the trimers and tetramers were most abundant, while pro-anthocyanidins with a degree of polymerization greater than 8 were least abundant. As biomedical studies determine which phenolic structures are associated with particular bioactivities, information on the phenolic concentration and profile of selected species will be useful in developing specific uses for fruit crops in human health. Methods were compared to assess the usefulness of simpler versus more sophisticated means of phenolic analysis. The phenolic components of fruit extracts were purified approximately 20-fold, and not qualitatively altered, by C18 solid-phase extraction. However, fruit extracts obtained from C18 solid-phase extraction differed in their relative abundance of phenolic components. Colorimetric and HPLC-DAD measures of phenolic concentration were correlated (R2 = 0.79), as was pro-anthocyanidin concentration detected fluorometrically and by mass spectrometry (R2 = 0.44). © 2007 Crown in the right of Canada and Society of Chemical Industry.