Multi-Chemical Profiling of Strawberry as a Traceability Tool to Investigate the Effect of Cultivar and Cultivation Conditions.

The chemical composition of foods is tightly regulated by multiple genotypic and agronomic factors, which can thus serve as potential descriptors for traceability and authentication purposes. In the present work, we performed a multi-chemical characterization of strawberry fruits from five varieties (Aromas, Camarosa, Diamante, Medina, and Ventana) grown in two cultivation systems (open/closed soilless systems) during two consecutive campaigns with different climatic conditions (rainfall and temperature). For this purpose, we analyzed multiple components closely related to the sensory and health characteristics of strawberry, including sugars, organic acids, phenolic compounds, and essential and non-essential mineral elements, and various complementary statistical approaches were applied for selecting chemical descriptors of cultivar and agronomic conditions. Anthocyanins, phenolic acids, sucrose, and malic acid were found to be the most discriminant variables among cultivars, while climatic conditions and the cultivation system were behind changes in polyphenol contents. These results thus demonstrate the utility of combining multi-chemical profiling approaches with advanced chemometric tools in food traceability research.

Application of Targeted Metabolomics to Investigate Optimum Growing Conditions to Enhance Bioactive Content of Strawberry.

A simple, sensitive, and rapid assay based on liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry was designed for simultaneous quantitation of secondary metabolites in order to investigate the influence of variety and agronomic conditions on the biosynthesis of bioactive compounds in strawberry. For this purpose, strawberries belonging to three varieties with different sensitivity to environmental conditions ('Camarosa', 'Festival', 'Palomar') were grown in a soilless system under multiple agronomic conditions (electrical conductivity, substrate type, and coverage). Targeted metabolomic analysis of polyphenolic compounds, combined with advanced chemometric methods based on learning machines, revealed significant differences in multiple bioactives, such as chlorogenic acid, ellagic acid rhamnoside, sanguiin H10, quercetin 3-O-glucuronide, catechin, procyanidin B2, pelargonidin 3-O-glucoside, cyanidin 3-O-glucoside, and pelargonidin 3-O-rutinoside, which play a pivotal role in organoleptic properties and beneficial healthy effects of these polyphenol-rich foods.

Nutritional and nutraceutical quality of strawberries in relation to harvest time and crop conditions.

Three strawberry varieties cultivated in soilless systems were studied for their content of primary and secondary metabolites in relation to harvest time and crop conditions. The three varieties were chosen based on their sensitivity level to environmental stress: Palomar (very sensitive), Festival (sensitive), and Camarosa (resistant). Throughout the campaign, three samplings were performed: December (extra-early production), January, and March (early production). Differences among cultivars and harvest times were observed based on the contents of sugars, organic acids, phenolic compounds, and antioxidant capacity. The higher levels for total anthocyanins and flavan-3-ols were found in Camarosa and Festival strawberries, both in the January harvest. The Palomar variety showed higher total sugar/total organic acids ratio in the March harvest. The influence of cultivation practices and environmental conditions was assessed by nested ANOVA and PLS-DA. Differences in the sugar and phenolic content were observed depending upon variety and coverage type. TEAC was most influenced by the substrate type.