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The term 'berry', in common parlance and in cuisine, refers generically to any small, edible fruit with multiple seeds. Aggregate fruits such as the blackberry, the raspberry, and the boysenberry are also berries in this sense, but not the botanical.
These fruits tend to be small, sweet, juicy, and of a bright color contrasting with their background to make them more attractive to animals that eat them, thus dispersing the seeds of the plant.
As berry colors derive from natural pigments synthesized by the plant, a special field of health research^[1] has focused on the anti-disease properties of pigmented polyphenols, such as flavonoids, anthocyanins, and tannins among other phytochemicals localized mainly in berry peels (skins) and seeds. Related to the biological properties of berry pigments is antioxidant ability for which berries are notable due to their relatively high oxygen radical absorbance capacity ("ORAC") among plant foods.^[1] Together with good nutrient content, ORAC distinguishes several berries within a new category of functional foods called "superfruits", a rapidly growing multi-billion dollar industry which began in 2005.^[1]

Contents

Botany

Notes

See also

External links

Botany

In botany, the 'berry' is the most common type of simple fleshy fruit; a fruit in which the entire ovary wall ripens into an edible pericarp. The flowers of these plants have a superior ovary and they have one or more carpels within a thin covering and very fleshy interiors. The seeds are embedded in the common flesh of the ovary. Examples of botanical berries include the tomato, grape, litchi, loquat, plantain, avocado, persimmon, eggplant, guava, uchuva (ground cherry), and chile pepper.
The fruit of citrus, such as the orange, kumquat and lemon, is a modified berry called a ''hesperidium''. The fruit of cucumbers and their relatives are modified berries called "pepoes". A plant that bears berries is referred to as ''bacciferous''.

		Botanical parlance
		Berry	Pepo	Hesperidium	Not a berry
Common parlance	Berry	Blackcurrant, Redcurrant, Cranberry, Blueberry, Gooseberry			Strawberry, Blackberry, Raspberry, Boysenberry
	Not a berry	Tomato, Persimmon, Eggplant, Guava, Chili pepper, Pomegranate, Avocado, Kiwifruit, Grape, Banana	Squash, Pumpkin, Gourd, Cucumber, Melon, Cantaloupe, Watermelon	Orange, Lemon, Lime, Grapefruit	Apple, Peach, Cherry, Green bean, Sunflower seed

Notes

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See also

★ List of fruits

★ Epigynous berry

External links

★ The National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens - Description of berries

★ Encarta.msn.com - Differentiation between true berries, pepos, and hesperidia

★ United States National Berry Crops Initiative

★ Berry Health Benefits Network - Scientists working on the health properties of berries