Phenolic profiling of twelve strawberry cultivars using different spectroscopic methods.

Phenolic compounds of 12 strawberry cultivars were profiled using spectrophotometry, spectrofluorometry, and HPLC-MS, coupled with multivariate regression analysis. Total phenolic, anthocyanin content and antioxidant capacity (TPC, TACY, and TAC, respectively), as well as concentrations of individual phenolics, were evaluated and the multivariate statistic was employed to identify the most promising cultivars based on their phenolic content. According to the principal component analysis, TAC was strongly correlated with the TPC (0.81) pointing out its importance in overall antioxidant activity. 'Joly', 'Laetitia' and 'Asia' cultivars were distinguished from others as the richest in concerning of identified anthocyanins, almost all flavonoids and phenolic acids. Multivariate Curve Resolution with Alternating Least Squares indicated the presence of two main types of fluorophores assigned to anthocyanins and phenolics which emission spectral ratios also showed the highest values in the referred cultivars. These cultivars could be recommended to consumers in terms of the health functionality of fruit.