Fragaria vesca L. - Rosaceae - wild strawberry, woodland strawberry, Wald-Erdbeere, Walderdbeere

Perennial herb, up to 30cm tall, native to Europe and Northern Asia; leaves 3-foliolate, leaflets sessile or central one shortly petiolulate, abaxially greenish, adaxially green, obovate, elliptic or broadly ovate; inflorescence corymbiform, 2-4-flowered, petals white; aggregate fruit ripening red, ovoid. http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=200010863

„The woodland strawberry was first cultivated in ancient Persia where farmers knew the fruit as Toot Farangi. Its seeds were later taken along the Silk Road towards the far East and to Europe where it was widely cultivated until the 18th century, when it began to be replaced by the garden strawberry, (Fragaria × ananassa), which has much larger fruit and showed greater variation, making them better suited for further breeding.“ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragaria_vesca

Sensory experiments with reconstituted wild strawberry flavor preparations showed that 2,5-dimethyl-4-hydroxy-3(2H)-furanone (first found by Sundt 1970) makes a great contribution to the flavor of the berries. Analysis of ether/pentane extracts of F.vesca and F.×ananassa cv. Senga Sengana showed concentrations of 1.7mg/kg (F.vesca; with 10.7% main volatile component) and 0.2mg/kg (F.vesca and ×ananassa cv. Senga Sengana). Most abundant esters of both extracts were methyl butyrate, ethyl butyrate, ethyl hexanoate, hexyl acetate, and (2E)-hexenyl acetate. Major volatiles of F.vesca were acids like acetic acid (8.9%), hexanoic acid (5.1%), and butyric acid (3.9%) as well as alcoholes like (2E)-hexenol (4.1%), hexanol (3.0%), benzyl alcohol (2.7%), 2-pentadecanol (1.7%), and eugenol (1.6%). Major volatiles of F.×ananassa cv. Senga Sengana were also acids like hexadecanoic acid, hexanoic acid, 2-methylbutanoic acid, butanoic acid, acetic acid, and cinnamic acid, as well as alcoholes like hexanol, (2E)-hexenol, and linalool. Both extracts contained methyl cinnamate, but only F.vesca contained methyl anthranilate and methyl N-formyl anthranilate. Small amounts of vanillin, γ-hexalactone, γ-heptalactone, and γ-octalactone were present only in F.vesca, whether δ-hexalactone, δ-octalactone, benzaldehyde, 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, 4-vinylphenol (0.05mg/kg F.×ananassa cv. Senga Sengana!), and eugenol were found in both extracts.
[Pyysalo, Tapani, Erkki Honkanen, and Timo Hirvi. „Volatiles of wild strawberries, Fragaria vesca L., compared to those of cultivated berries, Fragaria. times. ananassa cv Senga Sengana.“ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 27.1 (1979): 19-22]

„The wood strawberry Fr.vesca L. differs from the cultivated types in that it contains a very aromatic, plainly recognizable woodstrawberry-like semivolatile compound. It was identified as methyl anthranilate, reported previously by Hirvi and Honkanen (1982). This component was detected first in the nearly 50-year-old 'Mieze Schindler'.“
Key aroma compounds were DMF (mesifuran), methyl anthranilate, DHF (furaneol), γ-decalactone, the fruit esters methyl butanoate, ethyl butanoate, methyl hexanoate, and ethyl hexanoate, the fruit acids butanoic acid, 2-methyl butanoic acid, and hexanoic acid, and linalool.
[Analysis of strawberry flavour-discrimination of aroma types by quantification of volatile compounds., Ulrich, D., Hoberg, E., Rapp, A., Kecke, S., Zeitschrift für Lebensmitteluntersuchung und-Forschung A, 205(3), 1997, 218-223]

The intense aroma of wild species is associated with their high ester and terpene contents… Unlike the cultivated strawberry, all wild types show terpenoid odours like those of terpinen-4-ol… The very pleasant and spicy note of methyl cinnamate was determined only in F. vesca f. alba and in F. moschata ‘Cotta’.
[Diversity of aroma patterns in wild and cultivated Fragaria accessions., Ulrich, D., D. Komes, K. Olbricht, E. Hoberg., Genet. Resources Crop Evol., Vol.54, 2007, 1185-1196]

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„Because of its tannin content, strawberry leaves are used as a remedy for diarrhea.“
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragaria_vesca

„Strawberry leaves [wild strawberry leaves, Fragariae folium] are rich in condensed tannins and ellagitannins such as agrimoniin and pedunculagin, together with proanthocyanins, flavonoids (quercetin, rutin) and phenolic acids (salicylic acid, caffeic acid, chlorogenic acid). The rhizomes [Fragariae radix] have a high tannin content.“
[Medicinal Plants of the World. Ben-Erik Van Wyk and Michael Wink, Pretoria 2004, 146]

Agrimoniin „… was definitively established to be the main ellagitannin in both F. vesca and Fragaria ananassa D. fruit. The presence of sanguiin H-6 and lambertianin C as minor compounds was confirmed in both F. vesca and F. ananassa D. samples.“
[Clarifying the Identity of the Main Ellagitannin in the Fruit of the Strawberry, Fragaria vesca and Fragaria ananassa Duch., Vrhovsek, U., Guella, G., Gasperotti, M., Pojer, E., Zancato, M., Mattivi, F., Journal of agricultural and food chemistry, Vol.60(10), 2012, 2507-2516]

fruiting woodland strawberries, CC BY-SA 3.0, Author: Andreas Kraska