Seeds of cloudberry (Rubus chamaemorus) and crowberry (Empetrum nigrum
) growing wild in Finland between latitudes 60.5 and 69.5 degrees were
studied. Seed size, seed oil content and the composition of seed oil
triacylglycerols were determined for berries collected from 14 areas.
The weight of 100 seeds varied between 0.6 and 0.9 g in cloudberries a
nd between 0.09 and 0.13 in crowberries. Cloudberry seeds collected in
southern Finland were heavier (P < 0.05) than those collected in more
northern areas. The seed oil content of cloudberries varied from 9.1
to 12.4% and that of crowberries from 3.9 to 11.4%. Southern cloudberr
y seeds had lower (P < 0.05) oil contents, whereas those of crowberry
had higher (P < 0.01) oil contents compared with their northern counte
rparts. The lower the seed weight, the higher the oil content was in c
loudberries (r = -0.61). The M(r) distribution of triacylglycerols sho
wed no differences between cloudberry samples from south and north Fin
land. The seed oil of crowberry from the north contained more triacylg
lycerols of 52 acyl carbons (8 mole%) and less of those of 54 acyl car
bons (87 mole%) than the corresponding sample from the south (6 and 90
mole%, respectively). The most abundant fatty acids were linoleic, al
pha-linolenic, oleic and palmitic, which constituted over 95% of all f
atty acids in both berry species. Latitudinal differences existed in t
he fatty acid compositions; for example, the proportion of linoleic ac
id was highest (P < 0.05) and that of alpha-linolenic acid lowest (P <
0.01) in cloudberries from Lapland. Crowberries from southern Finland
contained more alpha-linolenic acid (P < 0.001) and less linoleic aci
d (P < 0.001) than berries collected from other areas. Copyright (C) 1
997 Elsevier Science Ltd.