Investigations of European Cranberry bush (Viburnum opulus) for breeding of new cultivars

Abstract

European cranberry bush (Viburnum opulus L.) is a native plant in Lithuania which is widely used in folk medicine. Flowers, bark and leaves are an important medicinal raw because of the large amounts of tannins, carotenoids, isovalerianic acid, saponins, and glycosides [1,2,3]. Moreover, fruit of this species could be a valuable dietary product as well as a source for the production of food supplements. The aim of present study was to investigate variation of yield, fruit properties and biochemical components of V. opulus accessions and select the potential donors of valuable properties for breeding of new cultivars. The constant large average yield was typical of the cultivars ‘Leningradskaja Otbornaja’, P3 and ‘Zarnica’ (8.5-6.2 kg/bush). The number of fruit in a raceme varied from 28.1±5.83 (‘Upninkai’) to 51.0±6.1 (cultivar ‘Krasnaja Grozd’). Evaluation of fruits chemical composition revealed the large amounts of flavonols. The largest amount of flavonols was found in the fruits of cultivar ‘Krasnaja Grozd’ and clone P1, respectively 18.1 and 17.9 g/100g). Accessions were compared according to the amounts of ascorbic acid, carotenoids, anthocyanins and phenolic compounds. The fruits of different accessions accumulated from 22.9 mg/100g (P3) to 49.9 mg/100g (‘Leningradskaja Otbornaja’) of anthocyanins and from 732.5 mg/100g (‘Souzga’) to 1280.0 mg/100g (P3) of total phenolics. The smallest amounts of anthocyanins were detected in fruits of the clone P3 (22.9 mg/100g) and the smallest amount of phenolic compounds was in fruits of the cultivar ’Souzga’ (732.5 mg/100g). The ascorbic acid content ranged from 13.0 mg/100g (‘Souzga’) to 44.7 mg/100g (P3). Fruits of the cultivars ‘Leningradskaja Otbornaja’ and ‘Upninkai’ accumulated the largest amounts of carotenoids (2.7-2.8 mg/100g). [...]