Berry

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Various berries

In everyday language, a berry is a small, pulpy and often edible fruit. Berries are usually juicy, rounded, brightly colored, sweet or sour, and do not have a stone or pit, although many pips or seeds may be present.[1] Common examples are strawberries, raspberries, blueberries; and red- and blackcurrants.[2] In Britain soft fruit is a horticultural term for such fruits.[3][4][5]

The scientific usage of the term berry differs from common usage. In scientific terminology, a berry is a fruit produced from the ovary of a single flower in which the outer layer of the ovary wall develops into an edible fleshy portion (botanically the pericarp). The definition includes many fruits that are not commonly known as berries, such as grapes, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants (aubergines) and bananas. Fruits excluded by the botanical definition include strawberries and raspberries. A plant bearing berries is said to be bacciferous or baccate.

Many berries are edible, but some are poisonous to humans, such as the fruits of the potato, the deadly nightshade and pokeweed can cause harm. Others, such as the white, red mulberry, and elderberry are poisonous when unripe, but are edible in their ripe form.[6]

Berries are eaten worldwide and often used in jams, preserves, cakes or pies. Some berries are commercially important. The berry industry varies from country to country as do types of berries cultivated or growing in the wild. Many berries such as raspberries and strawberries have been bred for thousands of years and are distinct from their wild counterparts, while some berries such as lingonberries and cloudberries grow almost exclusively in the wild.


History

Blackthorn - Forestside, Balatonkenese.JPG

Berries have been valuable as a food source since before the start of agriculture to humans, and remain among the primary food sources of other primates. They were a seasonal staple for early hunter-gatherers for thousands of years, and wild berry gathering remains a popular activity in Europe and North America today. In time, humans learned to store berries so that they could be used in the winter, and they may be made into fruit preserves, and among Native Americans, mixed with meat and fats as pemmican.[7]

Berries also began to be cultivated in Europe and other countries. Some species of blackberries and raspberries of the genus Rubus have been cultivated since the 17th century, while smooth-skinned blueberries and cranberries of the genus Vaccinium have been cultivated in the United States for over a century.[7] In Japan, between the 10th and 18th centuries, the term "ichibigo" (which later became "ichigo") referred to many berry crops. The most widely cultivated berry of modern times, however, is the strawberry which is produced globally at twice the amount of all other berry crops combined.[8] The strawberry was mentioned by ancient Romans who thought it had medicinal properties,[9] but it was then not a staple of agriculture.[10] Woodland strawberries began to be grown in gardens in France in the 14th century, musky-flavored strawberry (F. moschata) in late 16th century in European gardens, and later Virginia strawberry in Europe and the United States.[11] The most commonly consumed strawberry, the garden strawberry (F. ananassa), is an accidental hybrid of Virginia strawberry and a Chilean variety Fragaria chiloensis. It was first noted by a French gardener around the mid 18th century that when F. moschata and F. virginiana were planted in between rows of F. chiloensis, the Chilean strawberry would bear abundant and unusually large fruits. Soon after Antoine Nicolas Duchesne began to study the breeding of strawberries and made several discoveries crucial to the science of plant breeding, such as the sexual reproduction of strawberry.[12] Later in the early 1800s, English breeders of strawberry made varieties of F. ananassa which were important in strawberry breeding in Europe,[13] and hundreds of cultivars have since been produced through the breeding of strawberries.[10]

Etymology

A form of the word "berry" is found in all the Germanic languages; for example, Old English berie compares with Old Saxon and Old High German beri, and Old Norse ber. These forms point to the Old German *bazjo-m, which has been traced to the Old German *bazo-z (which also leads to the English word bare, as in "a bare fruit"). In Old English, the word was mainly applied to grapes, but has since grown to its current definition.

Botanical definition

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In botanical terminology, a berry is a simple fruit with seeds and pulp produced from the ovary of a single flower. It is fleshy throughout, except for the seeds. It does not have a special "line of weakness" along which it splits to release the seeds when ripe (i.e. it is indehiscent).[14] A berry may develop from an ovary with one or more carpels (the female reproductive structures of a flower). The seeds are usually embedded in the fleshy interior of the ovary, but there are some non-fleshy examples such as peppers, with air rather than pulp around their seeds. The differences between the everyday and botanical uses of "berry" result in three categories: those fruits which are berries under both definitions; those fruits which are botanical berries but not commonly known as berries; and those parts of plants commonly known as berries which are not botanical berries, and may not even be fruits.

Different kinds of berries
Lingonberries – berries under both definitions
Bananas – botanically berries, but not commonly described as such
Blackberries – botanically aggregate fruits
Sloe berries – botanically stone fruits or drupes
Yew berry – botanically a modified seed-bearing conifer cone

Berries under both definitions include blueberries, cranberries, lingonberries, and the fruits of many other members of the heather family, as well as gooseberries, goji berries and elderberries. The fruits of some "currants" (Ribes species), such as blackcurrants, redcurrants and white currants, are botanical berries, and are treated as horticultural berries (or as soft fruit in the UK), even though their most commonly used names do not include the word "berry".

Botanical berries not commonly known as berries include bananas,[15][16] tomatoes,[1] grapes, eggplants (aubergines), persimmons, watermelons and pumpkins.

There are several different kinds of fruits which are commonly called berries but are not botanical berries. Blackberries, raspberries and strawberries are kinds of aggregate fruits;[1] they contain seeds from different ovaries of a single flower. In aggregate fruits like blackberries, the individual "fruitlets" making up the fruit can be clearly seen. The fruits of blackthorn may be called "sloe berries",[17] but botanically are small stone fruits or drupes, like plums or apricots. Junipers and yews are commonly said to have berries, but these differ from botanical berries. They are highly modified seed-bearing cones. In juniper berries, used to flavour gin, the cone scales, which are hard and woody in most conifers, are instead soft and fleshy when ripe. The bright red berries of yews consist of a fleshy outgrowth (aril) almost enclosing the poisonous seed.

Cultivation

Strawberries have been grown in gardens in Europe since the 14th century.[10] Blueberries were domesticated starting in 1911 with the first commercial crop in 1916.[18] Huckleberries of all varieties are not fully domesticated but domestication was attempted from 1994-2010 for the economically significant western huckleberry.[19][20] Many other varieties of Vaccinium are likewise not domesticated, with some being of commercial importance.

Agricultural methods

Organic sloe berries

Like most other food crops, berries are commercially grown with both conventional pest management and integrated pest management (IPM) practices. Organically certified berries are becoming more widely available.[21]:5

Many soft fruit berries require a period of temperatures between 0 °C and 10 °C for breaking dormancy, in general: strawberries require 200–300 hours, blueberries 650–850 hours, blackberries 700 hours, raspberries 800–1700 hours, currants and gooseberries 800–1500 hours, and cranberries 2000 hours.[22] However too low a temperature will also kill the crops: blueberries do not tolerate temperatures below -29 °C, raspberries, depending on variety, may tolerate as low as -31 °C, and blackberries are injured at less than -20 °C.[22] Spring frosts are, however, much more damaging to berry crops than low winter temperatures causing sites with moderate slopes (3-5%) and north or east facing in the northern hemisphere near large bodies of water which regulate spring temperature to be considered ideal in preventing spring frost injury to the new leaves and flowers.[22] All berry crops have shallow root systems.[22] Many land-grant university extension offices suggest that strawberries should not be planted more than five years on the same site due to the danger of black root rot (though many other illnesses go by the same name), which is controlled in major commercial production by annual methyl bromide fumigation.[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] As well as years in production soil compaction, frequency of fumigation, and usage of herbicides increases the appearance of black root rot in strawberries.[30] Raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, and many other berries are susceptible to verticillium wilt. Blueberries and cranberries grow poorly if the clay or silt content of the soil is higher than 20%, while most other berries tolerate a wide range of soil types.[22] For most berry crops the ideal soil is well drained sandy loam with a pH of 6.2-6.8 with a moderate to high organic content; however, blueberries have an ideal pH of 4.2-4.8 and can be grown on muck soils and blueberries and cranberries prefer poorer soils with lower cation exchange, lower calcium, and lower levels of phosphorus.[22]

Growing most berries organically requires the usage of proper crop rotation, the right mix of cover crops, and the cultivation of the correct beneficial microorganisms in the soil.[30] As blueberries and cranberries thrive in soils that are not hospitable to most other plants and conventional fertilizers are toxic to them, the primary concern when growing them organically is bird management.[30]

Post-harvest small fruit berries are generally stored at 90-95% relative humidity and 0 °C.[31] Cranberries are however frost sensitive and should be stored at 3 C.[31] Berries do not respond to ethylene, except blueberries but flavor does not improve after harvest so they require the same treatment as other berries: removal of ethylene may reduce disease and spoilage in all berries.[31] Precooling within one to two hours post-harvest to storage temperature, generally 0 °C, via forced air cooling increases the storage life of berries by about a third.[31] Under optimum storage conditions raspberries and blackberries last for two to five days, strawberries 7–10 days, blueberries two to four weeks, and cranberries two to four months.[31] Berries can be shipped under high carbon dioxide or modified atmosphere of 10-15% carbon dioxide for high carbon dioxide or 15-20% carbon dioxide and 5-10% oxygen for a modified atmosphere container to increase shelf life and prevent grey mold rot.[31]

Breeding

Brambles have been cultivated for thousands of years and been crossed back and forth to create the range of edible Rubus which we have today.

Several important discoveries in the science of breeding of berries were made in the 18th century by Antoine Nicolas Duchesne in his work on strawberry.[12] In the traditional technique of plant breeding, berries with specific desirable characteristics were chosen and allowed to sexually reproduce with other berries, and offspring with improved traits can then be selected and used for further crossing. Plants may be hybridized with different species within the same genus; hybridization between different genus may also be possible but more difficult. Breeding may seek to increase the size and yield of the fruit, improve the flavor and quality of its nutrient content such as antioxidants, expand the harvest season, and produce cultivars with resistance to diseases, tolerance of hot or cold conditions, and other desirable traits.[32]

In recent years, advancement in molecular biology and genetic engineering allows for a more efficient and better targeted approach in the selection for desirable genotype, for example via marker-assisted selection.[33] Genetic modification techniques can also be used for the breeding of berries.[34]

Horticultural soft fruit berries

Some fruit not commonly referred to as berries and not always botanically berries are included by land-grant university extension offices in their guides for cultivation of berries, or in guides of identifying local wild edible and non-edible berries. Examples include beach plums,[35] American persimmons, pawpaws, Pacific crabapples, and prickly pears.[36]

Commercial production

One source suggests that in the year 2005, there were 1.8 million acres of land worldwide cultivating berries, with 6.3 million tons produced.[21]:4

Economics

According to figures from Global Berry Congress 2015 in the US over 6 million dollars of soft fruit are sold accounting for 19% of total supermarket revenue, more than bananas (a botanical berry) at 11%, and apples (14%); with continued rapid growth in the market expected.[37]

In certain regions berrypicking can be a large part of the economy, and it is becoming increasingly common for western European countries such as Sweden and Finland to import cheap labor from Thailand or Bulgaria to do the berry picking.[38][39] This practice has come under scrutiny in the past years because of low wages and living standard for the "berry-pickers" as well as lack of worker safety.[38]

Color and potential health benefits

Example of color contrast in (mostly inedible) wild berries

Berries are typically of a contrasting color to their background (often of green leaves), making them visible and attractive to frugivorous animals and birds. This assists the wide dispersal of the plants' seeds.

Berry colors are due to natural plant pigments, such as anthocyanins, together with other flavonoids localized mainly in berry skins, seeds and leaves.[40][41][42] Although berry pigments have antioxidant properties in vitro,[43] there is no physiological evidence established to date that berry pigments have actual antioxidant or any other functions within the human body. Consequently, it is not permitted to claim that foods containing polyphenols have antioxidant health value on product labels in the United States or Europe.[44][45]

When consumed with starchy foods, they significantly reduce the postprandial insulin response, among women.[46]

Culinary significance

Use in baked goods

A slice of blueberry pie

Berries are commonly used in pies or tarts, such as grape pie, blueberry pie, blackberry pie, and strawberry pie.

Berries are often used in baking blueberry muffins, blackberry muffins, berry cobblers, berry crisps, berry cakes, berry buckles, berry crumb cakes, berry tea cakes, and berry cookies.[47] Berries are commonly incorporated whole into the batter for baking and care is often taken so as to not burst the berries; frozen or dried berries may be preferable for some baked berry products.[48][49][50] Fresh berries are also often incorporated into baked berry desserts, sometimes with cream, either as a filling to the dessert or as a topping.[47]

Beverages

Berries are often added to water and/or juiced as in cranberry juice, which accounts for 95% of cranberry crop usage,[51] blueberry juice, raspberry juice, goji berry juice, acai juice, aronia berry juice, and strawberry juice.[52][53] Wine is the principal fermented beverage made from berries (grapes). Fruit wines are commonly made out of other berries. In most cases sugars must be added to the berry juices in the process of Chaptalization to increase the alcohol content of the wine. Examples of fruit wines made from berries include: elderberry wine, strawberry wine, blueberry wine, blackberry wine, redcurrant wine, huckleberry wine, goji wine and cranberry wine.[54][55][56][57]

Dried

Various dried berries

Currants, raisins and sultanas are examples of dried grape berries, and many other commercially important berries are available in dried form.

Fruit preserves

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Elderberry jam on bread

Berries are perishable fruits with a short shelf life and are often preserved by drying, freezing, pickling or making fruit preserves. Berries such as blackberry, blueberry, boysenberry, lingonberry, loganberry,[58] raspberry and strawberry are often used in jams and jellies. In the United States, Native Americans were "the first to make preserves from blueberries."[59]

Other usages

Chefs have created quick pickled soft fruit such as blackberries,[60] strawberries,[61] and blueberries.[62] Strawberries can be battered and quickly fried in a deep fryer.[63][64] Sauces made from berries, such as cranberry sauce, can be frozen until hard, battered and deep fried.[65] Cranberry sauce is a traditional food item for Thanksgiving, and similar sauces can be made from many other berries such as blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and huckleberries.[66][67][68][69][70]

Cultural significance

Dyeing

Berries have been used in some cultures for dyeing. Many berries contain juices which can easily stain, affording use as a natural dye. For example, blackberries are useful for making dyes, especially when ripe berries can easily release juice to produce a colourfast effect.[71][72][73] Rubus berries, such as blackberry, raspberry, black raspberry, dewberry, loganberry and thimbleberry, all produce dye colours once used by Native Americans.[73][74] In Hawaii, the native raspberry called 'akala' was used to dye tapa cloth with lavender and pink hues, whereas berries from the dianella lily were used for blue coloration, and berries from the black nightshade were used to produce green coloration.[75]

In Swaziland, several berry species are used as a dye.[76]

See also

References

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  44. Guidance for Industry, Food Labeling; Nutrient Content Claims; Definition for "High Potency" and Definition for "Antioxidant" for Use in Nutrient Content Claims for Dietary Supplements and Conventional Foods U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Food and Drug Administration, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, June 2008
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Further reading

External links