Nutrient composition of Algerian strawberry-tree fruits (Arbutus unedo L.)

Abstract

Introduction. Arbutus unedo L. (strawberry-tree fruit) is indigenous plant in North Africa with few published works about the composition of its fruits. For their valorization, morphological and chemical characterizations were carried out for two harvesting seasons of four different areas of Algeria. Materials and methods. Wild strawberry-tree fruits were collected in four different sites located in Tell Atlas, and two different seasons. Fruit size and shape, pH, titratable acidity, moisture, total available carbohydrate (TAC), soluble sugars, dietary fiber, protein, lipid, ash, fatty acids and mineral composition (K, Na, Ca, Mg, Fe, Cu, Mn, Zn, Ni and Cd) were determined. Results and discussion. Fruit contents (in g kg −1) varied between 637.3 ± 33.8 to 741.3 ±12.0, 126.8 ± 11.1 to 189.3 ± 4.1, 22.6 ± 2.2 to 35.5 ± 2.1, 5.1 ± 0.3 to 8.8 ± 0.5 for moisture, TAC, protein and lipid, respectively. For iron, fruit weight and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), the contents varied between 7.01 ± 0.15 to 17.24 ± 0.74 mg kg −1 of fruit, 4.91 ± 1.58 to 6.76 ± 2.04 g and 56.34 ± 1.37 to 68.18 ± 0.14% of lipid, respectively. Conclusion. This study provides original data about the morphological and chemical composition of strawberry-tree fruits from Algeria. The results show that the fruits can be essentially a potential source of dietary fiber, PUFA and iron.

Morphological and Biochemical Characterization of Diverse Strawberry Tree (Arbutus unedo L.) Genotypes from Northern Turkey

“…Total lipid content of all strawberry tree fruits was relatively low changed, from 0.28 to 0.54 g/100 g. Total lipid content in strawberry tree genotypes was reported 0.35-0.89 g/100 g in different Mediterranean countries [37,45,55], which indicate similarities with our findings.…”

“…Our strawberry tree genotypes showed high dietary fiber content between 7.04-12.76 g/100 g FW. Previous studies also indicated the richness of strawberry tree fruits for dietary fiber, ranging 9.28-22.20 g/100 g [23,37,45]. According to these results, and despite natural variations, fiber content in fruits of strawberry trees grown in Turkey fruits was always over 6 g/100 g, indicating that it could be considered as an excellent source of fiber for human populations, which is of great importance in light of the fact that modern diets are often lacking dietary fiber, and that Occidental diets are nowadays lacking in dietary fiber.…”

“…The number of fruits per cluster was reported in the range of 3.20-8.60 among strawberry fruit genotypes [25,37,40]. The fruit shape index was in the range of 0.67-1.42 [34,35,[38][39][40]45]. Toy [40] used 37 strawberry tree genotypes in the middle Black Sea region and reported fruit pedicel length, leaf length, and leaf width between 3.58-6.17 mm, 35.32-61.43 mm, and 13.29-30.00 mm, respectively indicating similarity with our study.…”

“…The fructose, glucose, and sucrose content were reported between 0.02-1.93; 2.32-8.34, and 3.08-17.93 g/100 g in Spain and Turkey [23,38,39], which is in accordance with our results. Boussalah et al [45] reported that fructose and glucose constitute the total soluble sugars for all samples of wild grown strawberry trees grown in Algeria and varied from 5.52-8.44 and 2.90-5.24 g/100 g, respectively.…”

Characterization of Extra Early Spanish Clementine Varieties (Citrus clementina Hort ex Tan) as a Relevant Source of Bioactive Compounds with Antioxidant Activity

“…Total fat was obtained after Soxhlet extraction with petroleum ether [16], and fatty acids were determined by gas-liquid chromatography with flame ionization detection (GC-FID, DANI model GC 1000 instrument, Milan, Italy) as described previously by the authors [18]. The results were processed using Clarity Software (DataApex, Prague, Czech Republic) and expressed in relative percentage (%) of each fatty acid.…”