ANTHOCYANIN PIGMENTS OF ROYAL OKANOGAN HUCKLEBERRY JUICE

Juice processed from Royal Okanogan Huckleberries had an intense purple color, (CIE L*a*b* = L*, 22.66, a*, -0.06, b*, -0.46) and high anthocyanin pigment content, (>5 g/L). The anthocyanins were separated by HPLC and characterized from retention times and UV-visible spectra of purified pigments and their hydrolysis products. The major pigment (>70%) was petunidin 3-(p-coumaroyl-rutinoside)-5-glucoside. Eleven additional anthocyanins were identified as petunidin, delphinidin, and malvidin with the same glycosidic substitution pattern as the major pigment, and varying degrees of acylation with p-coumaric, ferulic, and caffeic acids. It was concluded from comparative pigment analyses and berry morphology that Royal Okanogan Huckleberries had identical characteristics to the Garden Huckleberry, Solanaceae melanocerasum (renamed S. scabrum).