Evaluation of physical and chemical characteristics of three Iranian barberry species

Barberries (Berberis. Spp.) are one of the herbal plants that different parts of it like roots, leaves, barks and fruits have long been used as medicine in Iran. Besides, seedless barberry (B. vulgaris), which is cultivated as a domestic plant, other species (B.integerrima and B.crataegina) in different parts of Iran grow in wild conditions. Access to scientific information concerning the physical properties of Berberis species for optimum design of storage, transportation, sorting, processing and packaging equipment is important. Identification of the chemical characteristics of Berberis species can create a basis for using them in the pharmaceutical or food industries. Therefore, in order to in-troduce these native species, physical and chemical characteristics of two wild barberries and seed-less barberry were evaluated. Results showed that there was statistically difference between length, surface area, bulk density, thousand mass, and terminal velocity of these species. Compared to seed-less barberry, wild barberries because of their seeds had high amount of fat, protein, total carbohy-drate, ash and crude fiber. Wild barberries had high acidity and low pH. Potassium was the major mineral in all three species. B.cratagina contained the highest amount of anthocyanin (4684.037mg/l) followed by B.integerrima (998.17mg/l) and B.vulgaris (280.96mg/l). The differ-ence between chemical properties of B.cratagina and B.integerrima seeds were significant.