Main indicators of nutritional and biological value in black currant berries under the conditions of North

Background. Studying the chemical composition in the berries of new cultivars makes it possible to replenish the knowledge about the most important biochemical components of fruits and identify the most valuable genotypes with enhanced accumulation of nutrients and bioactive compounds for breeding programs and practical purposes. Materials and methods. Thirty-six black currant accessions from the VIR collection served as the material for this study. The biochemical composition of their fruits was analyzed in 2019–2021 at VIR’s Laboratory of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology using conventional techniques. The Microsoft Excel software and B. A. Dospekhov’s guidelines were used for statistical data processing. Results and conclusion. Berries of black currants grown in Northwest Russia contained 15.3–25.7% of dry matter, 8.3–15.1% of sugars, 2.0–3.3% of acids, 96.7–255.3 mg% of ascorbic acid, and 148.4–442.3 mg% of anthocyanins. Cultivars were identified for enhanced accumulation of individual chemical components (dry substances, sugars, ascorbic acid, and anthocyanins) and low total acid content. They can be employed in breeding practice. Fruits of cvs. ‘Navlya’ (k-42228), ‘Arapka’ (k-44175), ‘Gagatai’ (k-44168), ‘Svityazyanka’ (k-41979), ‘Elo’ (k-44171), ‘Karri’ (k-44172), and ‘Valentina’ (k-49786) exhibited a complex combination of the best values in their biochemical composition. Among all the studied components, the concentration of dry substances in fruits had the greatest stability.