The strawberry (Fragaria X ananassa, Duch.) represents a relevant source of micronutrients, such as minerals, vitamin C, folate and phenolic substances, most of which are natural antioxidants and contribute to the high nutritional quality of the fruit. All these compounds are essential for health and, in particular, strawberry phenolics are best known for their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory action, and possess directly and indirectly antimicrobial, anti-allergy and anti-hypertensive properties, as well as the capacity to inhibit the activities of some physiological enzymes and receptor properties. The main objective of this article is to review and update the current knowledge on the potential impact of the strawberry on human health, with particular attention on compounds and their possible mechanisms of action.

Increasing antioxidant levels in fruit through breeding is an important option to support higher antioxidant intake particularly when fruit consumption is low. Indeed, if nutritional components are also combined with a high standard of sensorial fruit quality, the perspective for consumer health can be further improved by encouraging more fruit consumption. Wild species are valued by strawberry breeders as sources of novel traits, especially for pest resistance and abiotic stress tolerance. Furthermore, previous investigations have shown improvements in fruit nutritional quality in breeding material that originated from Fragaria virginiana ssp. glauca (FVG) inter-species crosses. Recently, commercial varieties of strawberries have also shown interesting variability in fruit nutritional quality. Strawberry fruit sensorial and nutritional qualities generated by Fragaria inter-species and intra-species crosses were evaluated on 78 offspring derived from 8 families: two that originated from F. × ananassa intra-species crossing; three from back-crossing of F1– FVG × F. × ananassa; and three from back-crossing of BC1– FVG × F. × ananassa. The genetic variability from the three types of cross combinations was analyzed by calculation of the correlations among the fruit sensorial and nutritional parameters. The results obtained show that two subsequent back-crossing generations from an inter-species crossing combination with F. virginiana ssp. glauca provides useful improvement of the fruit nutritional and sensorial qualities that is combined with agronomic standards that are close to those requested at the commercial level. Improvements of these traits can also be achieved by programming F. × ananassa intra-species crosses and producing progeny with productivity traits more similar to those of the commercial cultivars. The two types of combination programs (inter-species back-crosses, and intra-species crosses) can be used to improve strawberry nutritional quality.