Rosehip is one of those plants that most people walk past without a second glance. Yet the genus Rosa, belonging to the Rosaceae family, includes more than 100 taxa, and the fruit has been prized for centuries as one of the richest natural sources of vitamin C known to science. Depending on altitude, species, and variety, rosehip fruit can contain anywhere from 100 to 5300 milligrams of vitamin C per 100 grams, a range that dwarfs citrus fruits. Beyond ascorbic acid, the fruit packs natural antioxidants, minerals, carotenoids, bioflavonoids, tocopherol, fruit acids, pectin, tannins, and amino acids, which explains its wide application in the food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetics industries worldwide. In Türkiye, the plant grows almost everywhere but thrives particularly in the Central and Western Black Sea regions and in Eastern Anatolia, where harsh continental climates prevail.

Despite this botanical wealth, rosehip production in Türkiye still relies overwhelmingly on collecting wild plants from nature. Although 27 species grow in the country, breeding efforts have been limited to a small number of selection studies, and the valuable genotypes those studies identified, along with many that were never examined, are at risk of being lost. The problem is partly agricultural: rosehip plants, with their thorny structure and shrub-like form, occupy large areas and are often viewed as undesirable in farm fields, leading farmers to eradicate them. The researchers behind the new study argue that identifying superior genotypes through selection work, and taking measures to preserve them, has become urgent before this natural diversity disappears.

Tunceli proved an ideal hunting ground. The province sits entirely within the Euphrates basin, hemmed in by the Munzur mountains and the Karasu river to the north and west, the Bingöl mountains and Peri river to the east, and the Keban Dam Lake to the south. Elevations plunge from peaks of 3500 to 4000 meters down to 914 meters, and the terrain is roughly 70 percent mountains, 25 percent plateaus, and only 5 percent plains. The climate swings from hot, dry summers with temperatures reaching 42.2 degrees Celsius in the south to brutal winters where the northern mountains can drop to minus 26.6 degrees. Annual precipitation ranges from 550 to 1080 millimeters. This steep environmental gradient, the authors note, is one of the major factors shaping the phenotypic and biochemical variability observed among the genotypes they evaluated.

In September 2023, the team selected ten individual plants from wild populations based on visible morphological differences in fruit shape, size, color, plant form, thorniness, and leaf structure, coding them TK1 through TK10. Sampling was conducted in three replicates per genotype, with 100 fruits per replicate, and fruit was harvested only when the hairy structures had fallen off, color had darkened, and the fruit detached easily by hand, all consistent maturity indicators. Taxonomic classification based on literature and field observations identified the plants as Rosa canina L., although the authors note that herbarium sampling was not performed for definitive species confirmation. The fruits were then subjected to an unusually comprehensive battery of measurements, from digital caliper dimensions to high-performance liquid chromatography of organic acids.

The morphological results showed striking variation over a remarkably small area. Fruit weight ranged from 1.00 grams in the TK4 genotype to 1.81 grams in TK2, while fruit width spanned 10.07 to 13.02 millimeters and fruit length 15.87 to 21.85 millimeters, all at altitudes between 1178 and 1256 meters. Seed traits varied just as widely, with seed weight ranging from 0.27 grams in TK4 to 0.64 grams in TK5, and seed length from 4.72 millimeters in TK6 to 6.58 millimeters in TK1. Fruit color, measured with CIELAB parameters, also differed significantly: the brightest fruit belonged to TK10 with an L* value of 42.01, while TK1 produced the darkest and most intensely red fruit, with the lowest hue angle of 30.06 degrees. The TK9 genotype stood out for color vividness, recording the highest chroma value at 49.22.

The biochemical data were even more dramatic. Soluble solids content ranged from 45.40 to 51.90 percent, and titratable acidity from 1.03 percent in TK8 to 2.77 percent in TK2. But the headline number was vitamin C: the TK10 genotype contained 1126.30 milligrams per 100 grams, nearly five times the 235.67 milligrams found in TK6. The authors suggest that ascorbic acid levels reflect not only genetic differences but also local microclimatic conditions, since vitamin C is vulnerable to oxidative degradation by oxidase enzymes when fruit tissues are exposed to high oxygen, particularly in valleys with large diurnal temperature swings and limited air circulation. In this sense, the low-vitamin-C genotypes may themselves be informative, offering clues about tolerance to environmental stress.

Antioxidant and phytochemical measurements reinforced the picture of exceptional diversity. Total phenolic content ranged from 38.50 milligrams of gallic acid equivalents per kilogram in TK7 to 95.29 in TK2, while total flavonoids spanned 18.00 to 68.40 grams of quercetin equivalents per kilogram, with TK10 the clear leader. Total monomeric anthocyanins varied more than fifteenfold, from 188.66 milligrams of cyanidin-3-glucoside equivalents per kilogram in TK6 to 2998.90 in TK8. Antioxidant activity, measured by both DPPH radical scavenging and FRAP ferric-reducing assays, was relatively high compared with previous studies, with FRAP values reaching 2098.20 micromoles of Trolox equivalents per kilogram in TK7. Organic acid profiling by HPLC revealed citric acid as the dominant acid in every genotype, peaking at 19.58 grams per kilogram in TK7, while TK2 led on malic acid at 3.75 grams per kilogram and TK10 on ascorbic acid at 0.22 grams per kilogram. Notably, TK1 carried the highest oxalic acid level at 0.56 grams per kilogram, a finding the authors flag as toxicologically relevant despite generally low values across the population.

To make sense of 23 morphological and biochemical traits measured simultaneously, the team turned to principal component analysis. Six principal components with eigenvalues above 1.0 together explained 92.4 percent of the total variance, with the first two components alone accounting for 52.1 percent. The first component, explaining 33.1 percent of variation, was dominated by fruit width, color parameters, soluble solids, vitamin C, DPPH activity, and ascorbic acid, with the b color value loading most heavily at 0.92. The second component, at 19.0 percent, captured fruit length, fruit weight, seed weight, seed length, titratable acidity, and total phenolics, with seed weight the most influential trait. A hierarchical dendrogram built from the same data split the ten genotypes into two main groups, with TK2, TK5, TK7, and TK10 clustering together as the standouts, each distinguished by particular strengths ranging from fruit size and phenolics to FRAP activity and vitamin C.

The practical upshot is that TK2, TK5, TK9, and TK10 emerged as superior performers across multiple desirable traits, making them prime candidates for germplasm conservation, selection breeding, and eventual cultivation. The study’s authors recommend follow-up work involving molecular characterization and multi-location evaluations to support effective utilization of these genetic resources. For a fruit that has never received systematic breeding attention in Türkiye, the message is clear: within a few square kilometers of mountainous Tunceli countryside, natural selection has already generated a portfolio of rosehip genotypes whose vitamin C, antioxidant, and flavor chemistry rivals anything in commercial production. The challenge now is to preserve that diversity before the thorny shrubs that carry it are cleared away, and to translate these wild genetic resources into cultivated varieties suited to a growing global market for functional foods and natural nutraceuticals.

Subject of Research: Pomological and biochemical characterization of wild rosehip (Rosa canina L.) genotypes in Tunceli, Türkiye

Article Title: Pomological and Biochemical Properties of Rosehip (Rosa canina L.) Genotypes

Article References: Ertugrul, E., Aglar, E., Ozturk, B., Tekin, O., Alan, D., & Ates, U. (2026). Pomological and Biochemical Properties of Rosehip ( Rosa canina L.) Genotypes. Food Science & Nutrition, 14(10), Article e72280. https://doi.org/10.1002/fsn3.72280

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1002/fsn3.72280

Keywords: rosehip, Rosa canina, vitamin C, antioxidant activity, genetic diversity, Tunceli, Türkiye, phenolic compounds, flavonoids, anthocyanins, organic acids, selection breeding