Evaluation of Bioactive Compounds in Strawberry Fruits by a Targeted Metabolomic Approach

Abstract

Strawberry (Fragaria ×ananassa Duch.) is referred to as a functional fruit because of its high nutritional value. Here, we used a targeted metabolomics approach to investigate the quantitative variation in strawberry bioactive compound concentration across cultivars and breeding lines and during fruit ripening. We also compared the efficiency of 95% ethyl alcohol (EtOH), 50% EtOH, and water in extracting these compounds. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and multivariate analysis revealed that 50% EtOH extracted bioactive compounds more efficiently than 95% EtOH and water. Screening of targeted bioactive compounds extracted with 50% EtOH in six cultivars and 28 breeding lines revealed high abundance of anthocyanins, flavonols, flavanols, and cinnamic acid, which constituted up to 6.4 mg·g-1 of fresh weight of fruits. The highest concentration of phenolic compounds was observed in breeding lines ‘SB08’, ‘SB11’, ‘Arang’, ‘SB09’, and ‘SB10’. Furthermore, significant changes in the concentration of these compounds occurred during fruit ripening in four strawberry cultivars. Overall, our results highlight the chemotypic relationship between cultivars, breeding lines, and fruit ripening associated-changes in strawberries, and these findings provide a chemometric method for choosing optimal cultivars/breeding lines.