Total anthocyanin pigments increased from 74.7 to 317 mg/100 g fresh weight (FW) from underripeto overripe for
Marion blackberries and from 69.9 to 164 mg/100 g FW for Evergreen blackberries.Total phenolics did not show a marked change with maturity with values slightly decreasing fromunderripe to ripe. Antioxidant activities, while increasing with ripening, also did not show the markedchange that total anthocyanins exhibited. The impact of variation due to plots, subsampling, samplepreparation, and measurement on Marion composition was examined in detail. Plot-to-plot and sampledifferences were the major contributors to variation, with sample preparation being an importantcontributor for some parameters. Measurement variation was a relatively small component of thetotal variation. Total anthocyanins for 11 blackberry cultivars ranged from 131 to 256 mg/100 g FW(mean = 198), total phenolics ranged from 682 to 1056 mg GAE/100 g FW (mean = 900), oxygenradical absorbance capacity ranged from 37.6 to 75.5
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mol TE/g FW (mean = 50.2), and ferricreducing antioxidant power ranged from 63.5 to 91.5
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mol TE/g FW (mean = 77.5).Keywords: Blackberries;
Rubus L. hybrids; anthocyanins; polyphenolics; antioxidant properties;cultivar; sample variation; maturity