Biochemical profiling and chemometric analysis of seventeen UK-grown black currant cultivars

Black currant fruits are recognized as being an important dietary source of health-related compounds, such as anthocyanins and ascorbic acid. In the present study, the biochemical composition (viz., nonstructural carbohydrates, individual anthocyanins, total anthocyanins, total phenolics, and organic acids, including ascorbic acid) from 17 UK-grown black currant cultivars was analyzed. Berry composition was significantly affected by genotype. Nonstructural carbohydrates ranged from 85.09 to 179.92 mg g(-1) on a fresh weight (FW) basis, while concentration for organic acids ranged from 36.56 to 73.35 mg g(-1) FW. Relative concentrations of cyanidin 3-glucoside, cyanidin 3-rutinoside, delphinidin 3-glucoside and delphinidin 3-rutinoside were 3.1-7.9%, 35.4-47.0%, 7.6-12.5% and 36.9-50.9%, respectively. Differences in the biochemical profile among cultivars were emphasized by principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA). PCA was able to discriminate between cultivars, especially on the basis of health-related compounds. Initial exploration revealed that individual anthocyanins, total phenolics, and ascorbic acid could be used to characterize and classify different cultivars. HCA showed that the biochemical composition of the different cultivars was related to parentage information.