**1. Introduction**

When we imagine a place like Patagonia, it is impossible not to evoke images of extraordinary beauty like southern ice fields. However, a walk through this place also allows us to contemplate ancestral traditions that include the use of many native species. This southernmost region of the South American continent extends from 37◦ S to Cape Horn, at 56◦ S, whose geography is characterized by the Andes range, which is both the continental watershed and the international limit between Argentina and Chile. It includes the Pacific and Atlantic coasts and lowlands, the southern archipelagos and tablelands, and the valleys and high plains extending between the Andes and the Atlantic Ocean [1].

The Andean temperate forests of Patagonia have a grea<sup>t</sup> diversity of plants with medicinal properties [2,3]. The use of medicinal and edible native plants is a long-standing tradition in the Mapuche communities of Southern Argentina and Chile [4–6]. An ethnobotanical survey conducted in rural villages of San Martin de Los Andes, Argentina, showed the use and knowledge of about 40 and 47 native plants, respectively [5]. Unfortunately, this ancient knowledge tends to disappear in the younger generations [5]. Moreover, the effects of human activity (e.g., an increase in dwelling number) and the invasion of alien plants can reduce the availability of forest-associated gathering sites. Therefore, the use of food derived from non-cultivated plants as part of the diet could be a tradition susceptible to disappearing [7–9] and the cultural, social, and economic aspects must be evaluated comprehensively if these traditions are to be maintained for future generations [8,9].

In recent years, the interest in food or ingredients that provide beneficial e ffects for human health has increased. As a result, many native fruits from di fferent continents have been studied as a source of functional foods [9–16]. In Chilean Patagonia, edible fruits come from woody or shrub forest species belonging to the Elaecarpaceae, Berberidaceae, and mainly Myrtaceae families [15,16], and creeping plants belong to Rosaceae family. These species present fruits rich in antioxidant and functional compounds, such as *Aristotelia chilensis* (maqui), *Berberis microphylla* (calafate), *Ugni molinae* (murta), *Luma apiculata* (arrayán), and *Fragaria chiloensis* (Chilean strawberry), among others [15–23] (Table 1). In Chile, these native species are mainly distributed from the Coquimbo to Magallanes regions (Latitude 31◦ to 55◦), with Chilean Patagonia being the common region for all fruits analyzed in the present review (Table 1).

Most of the traditional uses of these fruits include consumption as fresh and dried fruits or being used to make tea, jam, cakes, juice, alcoholic beverages, and textile tinctures. Moreover, they have tremendous functional potential due to their high antioxidant values, particularly flavonol and anthocyanin contents and promissory bioassay results as anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, and hypolipidemic agents [11,15,16,20–27]. Recently, the morphological characterization, geographical distribution, and ethnobotany of many of these species have been described in detail by Ulloa-Inostroza et al. (2017) [15] and Schmeda-Hirschmann et al. (2019) [16]. In this review, we focus on five fruit species growing in Patagonia with high potential as functional food (i.e., maqui, murta, calafate, arrayán, and Chilean strawberry, see Table 1); giving a little background on the fruit quality; and discussing the recent research data available—regarding the particular compound profile, their processing, and clinical assays—and the aspects to consider the commercial prospection of these Patagonian berries.

#### **2. Quality Aspects and Bioactive Compounds of Patagonian Berries**
