Nutritional and Functional Properties of Edible Berries: Implications For Health Claims

The data reported over the last decades on the relevance of fruits and vegetables for human health promotion has increased their use as nutraceutical ingredients. In this connection, berries display an interesting content in a wide variety of nutrients that contribute to a balanced diet such as sugars, essential oils, carotenoids, vitamins, and minerals as well as bioactive non-nutrients namely flavonoids, phenolic acids, stilbenes, and tannins. Bioactive compounds from berries have potent biological activities namely antioxidant, anticancer, antimutagenic, antimicrobial, antiinflammatory, and antineurodegenerative, which are supported by in vitro and, to a lesser extent, by in vivo models. This is a comprehensive review on nutritional and non-nutritional compounds present in berries, intended to provide rational information on the health benefits of integrating berries in balanced diets.

Keywords: Absorption, Berries, Bioavailaility, Biological activity, Flavonoids, Health, Intestinal microbiota, Metabolism, Nutrients, Phenolic acids, (Poly)phenols.