Wild strawberry (Fragaria vesca L.) belongs to the family Rosaceae and is a perennial and invasive plant that is found in the temperate zones of Europe, Asia, America on the edge of wooded areas where there is alternation of sun and shade and plant cover.
It is a diploid with 14 chromosomes.
It adapts to almost all terrains and likes places not completely exposed to the sun. It resists well to the cold.
Strawberry (Fragaria) is an evergreen climbing plant that reaches 20 cm in length, the fruit is highly perishable and has a short duration due to a degradation of the cell wall in the last stages of maturation.
It belongs to the Rosaceae family.
There are:
- Fragaria virginiana
- Fragaria chiloensis
- Fragaria x ananassa
- Fragaria ovalis
- (Fragaria vesca L.) wild strawberry
It adapts to almost all terrain and likes places not completely exposed to the sun. It withstands the cold well.
Strawberry contain a wide range of nutrients which contribute to human health such as the content of carotenoids in the pulp (1) :
- ß-cryptoxanthin 34,2%
- licopene 8,31%
- β-carotene 6,26%
It also contains natural and phytochemical compounds with antibacterial and antioxidant activities. It is also a source of carbohydrates, soluble dietary fibre, and polyunsaturated fatty acids (2).
Natural food prevention based on nutrition offers significant cancer prevention effects with rather low toxicity. In a series of pre-clinical and clinical studies, strawberry was chosen as a food-based intervention because it demonstrated powerful prevention activities with anti-inflammatory and anticancer activities attributable to anthocyanins (3).
Tiliroside, a flavonoid present in significant amounts in strawberry , has been shown to suppress increased levels of post-prandial plasma glucose. This finding reveals the anti-diabetic activity of strawberry (4).
Strawberry studies
References________________________________________________
(1) Relationship between pulp structure breakdown and nutritional value of papaya (Carica papaya) and strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa) nectars using alternative thermal and non-thermal processing techniques. Swada JG, Keeley CJ, Ghane MA, Engeseth NJ. J Sci Food Agric. 2016 May
(2) Wild Fragaria vesca L. fruits: a rich source of bioactive phytochemicals. Dias MI, Barros L, Morales P, Cámara M, Alves MJ, Oliveira MB, Santos-Buelga C, Ferreira IC. Food Funct. 2016 Nov 9;7(11):4523-4532.
(3) Chemopreventive Effects of Strawberry and Black Raspberry on Colorectal Cancer in Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Chen T, Shi N, Afzali A. Nutrients. 2019 Jun 3;11(6). pii: E1261. doi: 10.3390/nu11061261.
(4) Tiliroside, a glycosidic flavonoid, inhibits carbohydrate digestion and glucose absorption in the gastrointestinal tract. Goto T, Horita M, Nagai H, Nagatomo A, Nishida N, Matsuura Y, Nagaoka S. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2012 Mar;56(3):435-45. doi: 10.1002/mnfr.201100458.