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Title: ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECT ON ANTIOXIDANT CONTENT OF TEN RASPBERRY CULTIVARS

Author
item MOORE, PATRICK - WASHINGTON STATE UNIV.
item Perkins Veazie, Penelope
item WEBER, COURTNEY - CORNELL UNIVERSITY
item HOWARD, LUKE - UNIVERISTY OF ARKANSAS

Submitted to: Acta Horticulturae
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/31/2006
Publication Date: 6/15/2008
Citation: Moore, P., Perkins Veazie, P.M., Weber, C., Howard, L. 2008. Environmental effect on antioxidant content of ten raspberry cultivars. Acta Horticulturae. 777:499-503.

Interpretive Summary: Red raspberries are grown throughout the United States for processing and fresh market use. Raspberries have plant chemicals that are useful for human health (phytochemicals) that neutralize harmful substances in the body. Some of the phytochemicals in raspberries have been found to prevent certain cancers. There are many raspberry varieties grown in the U.S. and around the world but the phytochemical content is not known in many of them. Ten red raspberry varieties that were grown in Washington and New York over two seasons differed in phytochemicals, while source of fruit had little effect for most varieties. Two varieties developed for the Pacific Northwest were much higher in color and phytochemicals when grown in New York compared to Washington. These results indicate that the health properties of red raspberry may depend more on genetic variation than on production site.

Technical Abstract: Ten red raspberry cultivars grown in New York and Washington were harvested in 2002 and 2003 and analyzed for fruit composition and antioxidant content. The contributions of production environment and year were compared to genetic variability. Fruit were frozen, pureed, and seeds removed prior to analysis. Fruit was analyzed for fruit weight, dry weight, soluble solid content, pH, titratable acidity, total phenolics, total anthocyanins, FRAP and ORAC. There were genotype effects for all variables except for titratable acidity. There were very large location effects when the data was expressed on a fresh weight basis, but the location effects decreased in significance or were non-significant when expressed on a dry weight basis. There were moderate genotype x location effects. ‘Chilliwack’ and ‘Comox’ had much higher total anthocyanins, total phenolics and antioxidant potential in New York than in Washington The values for anthocyanin, phenolics, ORAC, FRAP, percent dry weight, soluble solids and pH were higher at the New York site than at the Washington site. The values for titratable acidity were similar at each site and fruit weight was smaller at the New York site than the Washington site.