Understanding health-promoting bioactive compounds in blackcurrants and their agronomic improvement

Abstract

The potential health benefits of black currant based products may be greatly increased if berries from cultivars with high contents of the health-promoting compounds are used as raw materials. The high variability in the levels of flavonols in different black currant cultivars have been demonstrated showing the potential of plant breeding for taking advantage to develop special cultivars for high in health-promoting compounds in target populations. Farming methods either growing organic or conventional means, did not found to have any major influence on the phenolic contents in blackcurrants. With the help of molecular-marker techniques, introgression of defined genes or genome parts possessing health effects is a tool box of modern breeding for speeding up the breeding progress