Composition of Sugars in Wild and Cultivated Lingonberries (Vaccinium vitis-idaea L.)

Abstract

Products of lingonberries are widely used in the human diet; they are also promising beauty and health therapeutic candidates in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. It is important to examine the sugar profile of these berries, due to potential deleterious health effects resulting from high sugar consumption. The aim of this study was to determine the composition of sugars in wild clones and cultivars or lower taxa of lingonberries by HPLC–ELSD method of analysis. Acceptable system suitability, linearity, limits of detection and quantification, precision, and accuracy of this analytical method were achieved. The same sugars with moderate amounts of fructose, glucose, and low amounts of sucrose were found in wild and cultivated lingonberries. Cultivar ‘Erntekrone’ and wild lingonberries collected from full sun, dry pine tree forests with lower altitude and latitude of the location, distinguished themselves with exclusive high contents of sugars. The changes in the sugar levels during the growing season were apparent in lingonberries and the highest amounts accumulated at the end of the vegetation. According to our findings, lingonberries seem to be an appropriate source of dietary sugars.

Forest land use discontinuity and northern red oak Quercus rubra introduction change biomass allocation and life strategy of lingonberry Vaccinium vitis-idaea

“…Simultaneously, it activates silvicultural measures directed to increase lingonberry yield (Pettenella et al 2019;Wolfslehner 2019). Tree stand thinning and moderate tree stand disturbance have already been recommended to increase lingonberry cover and yield (Mäkipää 1999;Hautala et al 2001;Bergstedt et al 2008;Hekkala et al 2014;Johnson et al 2014) and to improve lingonberry chemical quality (Vyas et al 2015;Vilkickyte et al 2019). This study revealed that the forest management scheme concentrated on transformation of pine monocultures to mixed Scots pine-red oak forests also needs improvement to consider lingonberry and other speciessources of NWFPs.…”

Phenolic Fractions from Vaccinium vitis-idaea L. and Their Antioxidant and Anticancer Activities Assessment

“…Quantitative differences between crude extracts of lingonberry leaves and fruits—significantly higher levels of total identified phenolics in leaves, observed in the present material—can be explained as follows. Lingonberry fruits are highly loaded with sugars—glucose, fructose, and sucrose—resulting in a much lower contribution of other bioactive compounds, such as phenolics to the total mass of lingonberries [ 34 ].…”

Comparative transcriptome analysis of lingonberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea) provides insights into genes associated with flavonoids metabolism during fruit development

“…Flavonoids, such as anthocyanins, flavonols and proanthocyanidins are particularly abundant in various berries [10][11][12][13]. According to literature reports, lingonberry fruits are rich in flavonoids and have strong antioxidant capacity [14][15][16]. The research on lingonberry flavonoids has been mainly in phytochemicals measurement, but the molecular mechanisms of the biosynthesis of flavonoids in lingonberry remain largely unknown.…”