Vaccinium corymbosum Berry Identity & Plant Part
The botanical entity is Vaccinium corymbosum L., the northern highbush blueberry, a deciduous shrub of the heath family, Ericaceae, native to eastern North America and now grown worldwide. The part used is the ripe berry. Leaves and stems are not added separately to this blueberry extract. The skin is blue-black with a powdery bloom, and the flesh underneath is pale greenish-white.
That pale flesh separates highbush blueberry from the European bilberry, Vaccinium myrtillus, whose pulp is red to purple throughout. A second field mark is the blossom end: American blueberries keep persistent sepals that leave a rough, star-shaped crown, while bilberries show a smooth, circular scar.
Wild lowbush blueberry, Vaccinium angustifolium, is another distinct source, and a specification that says only “blueberry” does not tell a buyer which one is meant.
Highbush berries contain anthocyanins in which malvidin and delphinidin derivatives dominate, followed by petunidin, cyanidin and peonidin glycosides.












