The relative contents of flavonoids and phenolic acids
among the berries studied varied considerably (Fig. 1).
The main phenolics found were flavonols in cranberry
(74% of the phenolics analyzed) and lingonberry (67%),
and hydroxycinnamic acids in blueberries and bilberry
(63 to 75%). The relative contents of hydroxybenzoic
acids (including ellagic acid) were very low in these ber-
ries. Flavonols dominated also in gooseberry, black
currant and red currant (44 to 67%), whereas phenolic
acids dominated in the other currants: hydroxycinnamic
acids in green currant (75%) and hydroxybenzoic acids
in white currant (54%). Ellagic acid was the main phe-
nolic compound in strawberry, cloudberry, red rasp-
berry and Arctic bramble (51 to 88%). Flavonols
represented 87 and 82% of all the phenolics analyzed
in sea buckthorn berry and crowberry, respectively.
Certain similarities were observed within families and
genera. In the following, the detailed results are grouped
according to the plant families and compared to the
data found in the literature.