Wild strawberry (Arbutus unedo): Phytochemical screening and antioxidant properties of fruits collected in northern Morocco

The aim of this study was to determine the polyphenolic compounds and the antioxidant ability of Arbutus unedo fruits, collected from three regions of northern Morocco, using high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to diode array and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry detection. The proper extraction method has been selected to achieve this objective. After delipidation, the three harvests were extracted by sonication using two solvents with increased polarity ethyl acetate and MeOH:water, 80:20 (v/v). Total polyphenols, flavonoids, tannins and anthocyanins were respectively: 108.41 ± 9.29 mg GAE/g (w/w) dry weight (DW), 101.07 ± 5.6 mg QE/g (w/w) (DW), 0.45 ± 0.48 mg EC/g (w/w) (DW) and 0.35 ± 0.48 mg Pg-3-glu/g (w/w) (DW). EC50 values for reducing power and DPPH radical scavenging activities were between 1.37 ± 0.2 and 17.82 ± 0.12 µg/mL (w/v). A total of 75 compounds were tentatively identified and some of these had never been found until nowadays in Arbutus unedo. The average amount of antioxidant compounds obtained by semi-quantitative analyses was 120.35 ± 32.05 mg/100 g (w/w) (DW). The attained results clearly highlight the potential of A. unedo as a source of healthy compounds, which could be advantageously added to the daily diet, making it a potential candidate for the cure for many emerging diseases.