The strawberry: composition, nutritional quality, and impact on human health.

Strawberries are a common and important fruit in the Mediterranean diet because of their high content of essential nutrients and beneficial phytochemicals, which seem to have relevant biological activity in human health. Among these phytochemicals, anthocyanin and ellagitannins are the major antioxidant compounds. Although individual phytochemical constituents of strawberries have been studied for their biological activities, human intervention studies using whole fruits are still lacking. Here, the nutritional contribution and phytochemical composition of the strawberry are reviewed, as is the role played by the maturity, genotype, and storage effects on this fruit. Specific attention is focused on fruit absorption, metabolism, and the possible beneficial biological activity on human health.