Currants and strawberries as bioactive compound sources: determination of antioxidant profiles with HPLC-DAD/MS

Among plant foods, berry fruit shows a high antioxidant capacity. Medical research has pointed out the medicinal properties of certain pigmented polyphenols, such as flavonoids, anthocyanins, tannins and other phytochemicals, which are mainly found in the skin and seeds of the berries. The aim of this work was to contribute to the study of the nutraceutical features of some berry fruit (currants, gooseberries and strawberries). The different antioxidant compound contents of the fresh fruit of different cultivars and selections of Ribes spp. and Fragaria x ananassa Duch have been analyzed. The fruit of 29 cultivars from 3 different species of Ribes spp. and 5 strawberry cultivars have been analysed by High Performance Liquid Chromatography coupled to a UV/Vis detector and a mass detector (MS) to identify and quantify the main antioxidant compounds. As far as the Ribes spp. cultivars are concerned, the presence of a high content of phenolic compounds has been confirmed, and they represent therefore an important source of antioxidant compounds. Moreover, the results have shown that the considered cultivars and selections of strawberries are good sources of bioactive compounds, especially phenolic substances. The results of this study could contribute to offer new insights into the nutraceutical aspects of the considered berry fruit species.