Nutrition value of rosehips

Abstract

Rosehips are the aggregate fruits of shrubs belonging to the Rosa genus of the Rosaceae family that are widely used for food, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries. Rose fruits contain a large range of important dietary antioxidants. The high antioxidant activity mainly attributed to ascorbic acid and carotenoids represents mainly lycopene, (3-carotene, tocopherols and fatty acids. The healing properties and benefits of these berries have been known to the body since ancient times, but in Lithuania, rose hips was mostly investigated as a decorative plant for recreational zones, however, there are no scientific studies on their nutritional value and therapeutic properties. The objective of these investigations was to determine nutrition value for five different rosehip species (R. rugosa, R. rugosa rubra, R. rugosa alba, R. cartina, R villosa), growing in Pakruojis area in Lithuania. Using the standard methods it was determined: dry matter content (%) - while drying samples in 105 °C temperature until stable mass; amount of protein (% DM) - using Kjeldahl method; amount of fibre (% DM) - using Henneberg-Stohmann method; amount of ashes (% DM) - using gravimetric method, while dry burning testing material, amount of fat (% DM) - using Soxhlet extraction method. According to the data obtained in this work the biggest amount of fibre was accumulated in rose hip flesh of R. canina species (13.75 % DM). The highest amounts of dry matter and ash were determined in R. rugosa hip flesh (respectively 95.43 % and 5.95 % DM.) R. rugosa alba species demonstrated the highest amount of proteins (4.79 % DM.) The essential highest amount of fat was found in R. rugosa rubra hip flesh (2.03 % DM), the lowest - in R. canina hip flesh (0.30 % DM). Lhe results of our research showed that the nutritional value of rosehip species growing in Lithuania differed too much.