Assessment of the differences in the phenolic composition and color characteristics of new strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa Duch.) cultivars by HPLC-MS and Imaging Tristimulus Colorimetry

•Characterization of novel strawberry cv. based on phenolic composition (HPLC-MS)•Objective assessment of color differences by Imaging Tristimulus Colorimetry•Good color-composition relationships found by multivariate statistical techniques

The phenolic composition (by HPLC-DAD-MS) and color characteristics (by Imaging Tristimulus Colorimetry) of four strawberry cultivars that have shown good climate adaptation to subtropical area (Nikte, Zamorana, Jacona and Pakal) have been assessed. 24 monomeric phenolics were identified, including 15 anthocyanins, 5 phenolic acids, 1 flavanol and 4 flavonols. Nikte and Zamorana showed the highest phenolic potential mainly due to their higher content of anthocyanins, while Pakal was richer in phenolic acids. Regarding color, Nikte and Zamorana were the more similar cultivars having the lowest values of lightness and hue. On the contrary, the color of Pakal was quite different from all the rest, due to the specific distribution between pelargonidin and cyanidin. The inclusion of both phenolic and colorimetric information in the Linear Discriminant Analysis allowed reaching very good discriminations among cultivars.