JOURNAL OF FOOD COMPOSITION AND ANALYSIS, vol.97, 2021 (SCI-Expanded)
The rich polyphenol and antioxidant contents of the strawberry fruits have been attracting particular attention in the recent years with their contribution to the fruit's aroma and taste, which are indispensable in the diet of the people of the Mediterranean countries. In this context, the aim of this study was to reveal the variation of the taste and the health related compounds in widely cultivated strawberries (`llubygem', 'Festival', and 'Fortuna') during the active harvest periods (March, April and May). The harvest periods were found to be decisive in fruit quality change. In this context, the fruits which were harvested in April and had higher taste and comprised higher amounts of health related compounds than that of the ones harvested in March. The highest amounts of sinapic, syringic, chlorogenic and ferrulic acids were determined in 'Fortuna' cultivar as 5.36, 4.68, 2.80 and 0.31 mg kg(-1), respectively. The 'Festival' fruits had the highest amounts of caffeic and p-coumaric acids (41.77 and 0.28 mg kg(-1)). On the other hand, the significantly lowest contents of these compounds were detected at the 'Rubygem' cultivar of our study. According to the Principal Component Analysis (PCA), the total phenol content influenced the total antioxidant activity more than the total monomeric anthocyanin along with t-ascorbic acid and ellagic acid.