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Abstract: Three advanced raspberry (Rubus idaeus L.) lines from the University of Guelph breeding program (‘88-18’, ‘88-117’, ‘88-134’) and one advanced line from the Quebec fruit breeding program (‘SJR942-7’) were tested for their winter hardiness, fruit quality, horticultural characteristics and antioxidant activity compared to four commercially grown cultivars (‘Festival’, ‘Boyne’, ‘Nova’ and ‘Killarney’) recommended for Quebec. Lines ‘88-18’ from Guelph and ‘SJR942-7’ from Quebec had higher antioxidant activity, larger fruit size, better fruit quality and longer shelf life than all other lines and cultivars tested. The ellagic acid content of ‘SJR942-7’ was approximately two times higher than that of the commercial cultivars grown in Quebec. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This study mainly focused on lutein content in several selected crops grown in southern Ontario, Canada. Marigold flower, a good rotation crop for the control of nematodes in tobacco fields was found to contain 0.77% lutein (after saponification, on dry basis). A high-speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC) method using a two-phase solvent system consisting of hexane-ethanol-water (6:4.5:1.5, v/v/v) was developed for the purification of lutein from the saponification mixture of marigold flower extract. The purity of lutein prepared using this HSCCC method was 97%. Free lutein was found to be the predominant form in three squash varieties, and it was mostly found in the peel rather than the commonly consumed flesh. Sweet Mamma, Buttercup and Pepper squash varieties contained 25.4, 18.4 and 30.1mg/100g fresh weigh (FW) of lutein in the peels, respectively. These concentrations were significantly higher than that in spinach and kale (3.7 and 12.3 mg/100 g FW). beta-Carotene was found most in the peel of Sweet Mamma squash at 13.6 mg/100g FW, whereas it was below 2mg/100g FW in all other samples. Cooking increased extractable free lutein by 22-65% in squash peels. Lutein in Yukon Gold potato was at ca. 0.4 mg/100 g FW. Certain Yukon Gold was also found to contain violaxanthin (0.35 mg/100 g FW). Structures of lutein, beta-carotene and violaxanthin were identified by LC-atmospheric pressure chemical ionization MS in positive ion mode, and by comparing the retention time and UV-vis spectral data with standards. Results from this study suggest the selected crops and agri-food industrial processing by-products of these can be a good source of free lutein.

Polyphenolic compounds of apple may play an important role in physiologic functions related to human health. Different polyphenolics may have varied biological activities including antioxidant activity. The objective of this study was to investigate the profiles of polyphenolic compounds in different apple varieties and different parts of an apple. The total and individual polyphenolics differed significantly among the eight apple cultivars grown in Ontario, and the peels had higher concentrations than the flesh. Among the tested cultivars, Red Delicious and Northern Spy had the highest concentrations and Empire the lowest. Five major polyphenolic groups with a total of 16 identified individual compounds were found, among which the dihydroxycinnamic acid esters, phloretin glycosides, and flavan-3-ols were found in both flesh and peel, whereas quercetin glycosides were almost exclusively found in the peel. Cyanidin 3-galactoside was unique to and found only in red apple peels. In both apple peel and flesh, the predominant group of polyphenolics was the procyanidins, followed by quercetin glycosides in the peel and hydroxycinnamic acid esters in the flesh. 3-Hydroxyphloretin 2'-xyloglucoside was newly identified in apple. The results obtained in this study will further the understanding of the polyphenolic composition of apples and their roles in health-promoting physiological functions.