Classification of barberry genotypes by multivariate analysis of biochemical constituents and HPLC profiles

Abstract Introduction Recently, there has been a growing interest in the use of edible barberry and their extracts as a source of natural antioxidants in food and pharmaceutical industries. Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the biochemical constituents of 18 samples of barberry fruits and classification of barberry genotypes by multivariate analysis. Methods Total phenolic, total flavonoid, total anthocyanin, total tannin, total carbohydrate contents and antioxidant activity were determined using Folin–Ciocalteu, aluminum chloride, colorimetric, vanillin, anthron and DPPH (2,2′‐diphenyl‐1‐picrylhydrazyl) assays, respectively. High‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) system is used for quantitative determination of phytochemical constituents. The multivariate data analysis (principal component analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis) and heat map data visualisation techniques were performed to classify barberry genotypes using Minitab and GraphPad Prism software, respectively. Results The highest amounts of total phenolics and flavonoids were obtained in fruit extracts of G3 ( Berberis vulgaris ). The highest total anthocyanin content and antioxidant activity were observed in G8 ( B. vulgaris ) and G16 ( B. vulgaris ), respectively. HPLC analysis of phytochemicals (gallic acid, caffeic acid, chlorogenic acid, p ‐coumaric acid, cinnamic acid, rutin, apigenin, and quercetin) revealed that gallic acid and p ‐coumaric acid were found as the most abundant phytochemical compounds. Based on multivariate analysis and heat map visualisation techniques, Berberis genotypes were classified into three main clusters. Conclusions These results showed that barberry species (especially B. vulgaris and B. carataegina ) are promising sources of natural antioxidants and biochemical compounds beneficial to be used in the food industry and that the multivariate analysis was a suitable approach to classify the barberry samples.