Wild and cultivated strawberries: Diversity, pigments and metabolic change

Abstract

The consumption and utilization of strawberry plants begins in the I-III centuries a.C. in Roman times, from wild species of the genus Fragaria (Aranda, 2010). In the XIII century, the Greek physician Nicholas Myrepsur points out in his writings goodness of Fragaria vesca in the treatment of diseases (Medina-Minguez, 2008). At the end of this century, three species of Fragaria sp. were recognized: Fragaria vesca, Fragaria moschata and Fragaria viridis (Medina-Minguez, 2008). The first hints of strawberry culture in Europe began with the transplantation of wild specimens of F. vesca ornamental purposes (Aranda, 2010); this led to its consideration as a valuable source of food and use their runners for distribution to new plots and increase their production (Medina-Minguez, 2008). In South America, Mapuches and Huilliches, cultivated different edible species, including white Chilean strawberry (F. chiloensis ssp. chiloensis currently) until the appearance of the Spaniards in 1550-1551 (Hummer et al., 2011). In the early eighteenth century, native American plants of Fragaria chiloensis and Fragaria virginiana were collected by Amédée Frézier for Royal Gardens of Paris; these plants showed fruit larger than known until that time in Europe. The first crosses aiming at improving the quality and fruit size, were tested using F. chiloensis as female parent and other species of Fragaria as male parents. Thus the commercial strawberry arises mid-eighteenth century in Brest - France as an interspecific hybrid between F. chiloensis and F. virginiana (Hancock, 1999; Sargent, 2005; Njuguna, 2010)