Nutritional values of new Czech cultivars of Saskatoon berries (Amelanchier alnifolia Nutt.)

Abstract

The Saskatoon berry (Amelanchier alnifolia Nutt.) belongs to less known cultivated pomaceous fruit. Over the last two decades new cultivars have been bred in the Czech Republic. In our work the fruit of those new cultivars were analysed as far as basic nutritional characteristics were concerned. Moreover, the content of phenolic substances, antioxidant capacity and flavonoid content were determined. For comparison, the fruit of selected North American cultivars grown in the conditions of Central Europe were analysed. Besides North American cultivars also the Tisnovsky cultivar seems to be promising since both the highest content of phenolic substances (3.80 g of gallic acid equivalent/kg of fresh mass) and the highest antioxidant capacity (5.05 g of ascorbic acid equivalent – measured by the ABTS test) were recorded. In Central European cultivars there were high contents not only of pectins, but also of phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, sodium and manganese as far as mineral elements were concerned.