Compositional Diversity among Blackcurrant (Ribes nigrum) Cultivars Originating from European Countries

Berries representing 21 cultivars of blackcurrant were analyzed using liquid chromatographic, gas chromatographic, and mass spectrometric methods coupled with multivariate models. This study pinpointed compositional variation among cultivars of different origins cultivated in the same location during two seasons. The chemical profiles of blackcurrants varied significantly among cultivars and growing years. The key differences among cultivars of Scottish, Lithuanian, and Finnish origin were in the contents of phenolic acids (23 vs. 16 vs. 19 mg/100 g on average, respectively), mainly as 5-O-caffeoylquinic acid, 4-O-coumaroylglucose, (E)-coumaroyloxymethylene-glucopyranosyloxy-(Z)-butenenitrile, and 1-O-feruloylglucose. The Scottish cultivars were grouped based on the 3-O-glycosides of delphinidin and cyanidin, as were the Lithuanian cultivars. Among the Finnish samples, the content of myricetin 3-O-glycosides, 4-O-caffeoylglucose, 1-O-coumaroylglucose, and 4-O-coumaroylglucose were significantly different between the two green-fruited cultivars and the black-fruited cultivars. The samples from the studied years differed in the content of phenolic acid derivatives, quercetin glycosides, monosaccharides and citric acid.