ABSTRACT:
The Eastern strawberry tree, Arbutus andrachne L., is a medicinal evergreen small tree naturally distributed from Eastern Mediterranean to the Northern Black Sea region. In this study, We determined several characteristics of four Arbutus andrachne accessions collected from different parts of Latakia province (Syria). The physic-chemical properties of ripe fruits of Arbutus andrachne were determined. Fruits contain 3.33 g/100g of ash, 58.67% of water and 16.2 % of soluble solids. Among nutritionally important components found in fruits were: 0.85 g/100g proteins, fibers (18 g/100g fw) of which 14.45 g/100g was insoluble fibers and 3.55 g/100g soluble fibers. All the element concentrations that were tested varied considerably. The average for total sugars of the Arbutus andrachne accessions was 20.65 g/100g fruit, fructose was the main sugar (average of 12.16 g/100g fruit) followed by glucose (6.25 g/100g fruit) and sucrose (2.24 g/100g fruit). Among the Arbutus andrachne accessions tested, the total phenolics ranged from 14.5 (Height 3) to 15.95 (Height2) mg GAE/100g (fw) with an average of 15.39 mg GAE/100g (fw), and Ascorbic acid with an average of 244.5 mg GAE/100g (fw).