Physicochemical Diversity Among Barberry (Berberis vulgaris L.) Fruits from Eastern Anatolia

Wild edible fruits have been gaining much interest more recently because of their better biochemical content and widely use in ethno medicine treating common disease such as cold, fever and other medicinal claims are now supported with sound scientific evidences. In this study, diversity of some important physicochemical characteristics (plant growth habit, fruit shape, fruit color, fruit weight, pulp ratio, soluble solid content, total phenolics, total anthocyanin, antioxidant activity, sugars, organic acids) of fruits from fourteen promising barberry (Berberis vulgaris L.) selections grown in Erzurum province in Turkey were investigated. Significant differences were observed between the studied genotypes for most of the physicochemical parameters. Fruit weight and pulp ratio were found between 0.102 (25ERZ5) and 0.342 g (25ERZ7) and 60.81% (25ERZ2) and 75.41% (25ERZ11). Total phenolic and anthocyanin content ranged from 2281 (25ERZ5) to 3462 (25ERZ7) as mg GAE per liter fruit juice and 360 to 874 mg as cyanidin-3-glucoside per liter fruit juice. Glucose and fructose were found to be dominant sugars in all barberry accessions analyzed.