Phytochemical composition and content of Red-Fleshed grape cultivars

Authors: LU, LIZHEN - Tsinghua University; Yang, Yingzhen; Zhong, Gan-Yuan; LIANG, ZHENCHANG - Tsinghua University; CHENG, LAILIANG - Cornell University

Submitted to: Horticulturae
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/9/2023
Publication Date: 5/12/2023
Citation: Lu, L., Yang, Y., Zhong, G., Liang, Z., Cheng, L. 2023. Phytochemical composition and content of Red-Fleshed grape cultivars. Horticulturae. https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae9050579.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae9050579

Interpretive Summary: Red flesh grapes have high levels of anthocyanins and other polyphenols which are health beneficial, and there is an increasing interest in breeding red flesh grape varieties for juice and table grape industry. While many existing red flesh grapes may originate from similar sources, manifestation of the red flesh trait and therefore content of anthocyanins are expected to vary with genetic background. Previous studies of red flesh grapes were limited to one or two varieties and mainly focused on anthocyanins. In this study, we analyzed the composition and content of all the major polyphenolic compounds, including anthocyanins, in whole berry (excluding seeds), skin, and flesh in 13 red flesh grape cultivars preserved in the USDA-Agricultural Research Service Vitis Clonal Repository in Geneva, New York. These 13 red flesh grapes have very diverse and complex pedigrees and offer an excellent opportunity for evaluation of the manifestation of the red flesh trait in different genetic background. We found that the content of total polyphenols ranged from 4.795 to 29.875 mg g-1 FW in berry, from 1.960 to 12.593 mg g-1 FW in flesh, and from 17.067 to 60.182 mg g-1 FW in peel. As expected, anthocyanins were the main polyphenolic compounds, accounting for 90.4, 89.4 and 94.1% of the total polyphenols in berry, flesh and peel, respectively. Significant variation was also found for other polyphenolic compounds. These findings suggested that genetic background was an important factor in influencing accumulation of these polyphenols in red flesh grape berries.

Technical Abstract: The profiles of polyphenolic compounds in the whole berry, flesh and peel of thirteen red-fleshed grape (Vitis) accessions were determined for two consecutive years. The content of total polyphenols ranged from 4.795 to 29.875 mg g-1 FW in berry, from 1.960 to 12.593 mg g-1 FW in flesh, and from 17.067 to 60.182 mg g-1 FW in peel. As expected, anthocyanins were the main polyphenolic compounds, accounting for 90.4, 89.4 and 94.1% of the total polyphenols in berry, flesh and peel, respectively. Flavanols accounted for 36.2% of the non-anthocyanin polyphenols in berry, 35.3% in flesh and 38.3% in peel. In comparison, flavonols respectively accounted for about 11.6, 5.7, and 15.8% of the non-anthocyanin polyphenols in these three tissues. Hydroxycinnamic derivatives were the most abundant non-anthocyanins and accounted for 53.8, 56.1 and 44.3% of non-anthocyanin polyphenols in in berry, flesh and peel, respectively. The content of polyphenols in peel was significantly higher than that in flesh and whole berry. Significant variation in the content of total and individual polyphenols was observed among different red-fleshed grapes, suggesting that genetic background was an important factor in affecting the accumulation of these polyphenols.