Jagoda

The genus Fragaria, the strawberries, is in the rose family, Rosaceae. There are more than 20 described species and many hybrids and cultivars. The most common strawberries grown commercially are cultivars of the garden strawberry. Strawberries have a taste that varies by cultivar, and ranges from quite sweet to rather tart. The fruit is eaten either fresh or in prepared foods such as jam, ice cream and chocolates.

Plant and Fruit

Botanically, the strawberry is not a berry, but an aggregate accessory fruit. Garden strawberries are octoploid (8N), like both parents, the Virginia and Chilean strawberries. Strawberry cultivars vary widely in attributes such as disease resistance, dessert and freezing quality, yield, and season of ripening.

Production

Strawberries are an important commercial fruit crop, widely grown in all temperate regions of the world. In 2024, world production of strawberries was 10.7 million tonnes, led by China with 38% of the total. For commercial production, plants can be propagated from bare root plants or plugs.

Chemistry

Esters, terpenes and furans are the compounds with the strongest relationships to strawberry flavour, sweetness and fragrance. A total of 31 out of some 360 volatile compounds are significantly correlated to desirable flavour and fragrance. A mixture of only 19 compounds, called Key Volatile Compounds, can impart the main strawberry aroma. Esters encompass 25% to 90% of the total number of volatiles in ripe strawberry fruit. Methyl butanoate, ethyl butanoate, butyl acetate, methyl hexanoate, and ethyl hexanoate have been reported to be the major esters. The ratio of ethyl and methyl esters depends on the genotype. Formation of esters has been reported to occur only in the mature fruit stage because the esterase activity is absent at immature stages. Furaneol accumulation during ripening has been observed in strawberries and can reach a high concentration of 37 μg/g. The volatile profile is significantly different between strawberry varieties, both qualitatively and quantitatively. Methyl anthranilate and gamma-decalactone are prominent in aromatic wild strawberries, and both are especially desired in breeding strawberries for the commercial market in the United States.

Key Aroma Materials

Furaneol is formally a derivative of furan. Furaneol is a white or colorless solid that is soluble in water and organic solvents. Furaneol has two enantiomers, (R)-(+)-furaneol and (S)-(-)-furaneol, and the (R)-form is mainly responsible for the smell. Ethyl methylphenylglycidate, commonly known as strawberry aldehyde, is an organic compound used in the flavor industry in artificial fruit flavors, particularly strawberry. Despite its common name, it contains ester and epoxide functional groups and lacks an aldehyde group. Ethyl methylphenylglycidate is a colorless liquid that is insoluble in water. Methyl anthranilate, also known as methyl 2-aminobenzoate, is an ester of anthranilic acid.