Influence of environmental conditions on the production of nutraceuticals in Italian edible plant landraces.

Autor: De Rossi S; Department of Biology, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00132 Rome, Italy., Di Marco G; Department of Biology, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00132 Rome, Italy., D'Agostino A; Department of Biology, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00132 Rome, Italy., Braglia R; Department of Biology, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00132 Rome, Italy., Mecca G; EXO-Ricerca Soc. Consortile a r.l., Via del Gallitello 116/I, 85100 Potenza, Italy., Canini A; Department of Biology, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00132 Rome, Italy., Gismondi A; Department of Biology, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00132 Rome, Italy. Electronic address: gismondi@scienze.uniroma2.it.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Food research international (Ottawa, Ont.) [Food Res Int] 2023 Mar; Vol. 165, pp. 112483. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Jan 13.
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodres.2023.112483
Abstrakt: Autochthonous plant varieties, also referred to as landraces, represent an important genetic resource, being well-adapted to the environment in which they have been selected. Landraces usually show profiles rich in nutraceuticals, making them an effective and valuable alternative to commercial agri-products, as well as potential candidates for crop improvement programs. Basilicata region is recognized as an Italian hotspot for agrobiodiversity, due to its complex orography. Thus, this work aimed to characterize and monitor, for two successive years, the content of secondary metabolites and related antioxidant properties of seven different species, four officinal (i.e., wild fennel - Feoniculum vulgare Mill.; oregano - Origanum vulgare L.; thyme - Thymus vulgaris L.; valerian - Valeriana officinalis L.) and three fruit species (i.e., fig - Ficus carica L. cv. Dottato; sweet cherry Prunus avium L. cv. Majatica; plum - Prunus domestica L. cv. Cascavella Gialla), collected in three different sites of this region. In detail, spectrophotometric tests were performed to assess the concentration of phenolic compounds, flavonoids, and - for officinal plants - also terpenoids, together with the antiradical activity (FRAP assays). In addition, to better typify the phytocomplexes of these landraces, HPLC-DAD and GC-MS analyses were carried out. In general, officinal plants showed higher values of nutraceutical compounds and related bioactivity with respect to fruit species. The data showed how different accessions of the same species had different phytochemical profiles, according to the sampling area and the year of collection, suggesting a role for both genetic and environmental factors in determining the observed results. Therefore, the final goal of this research was also to find a possible correlation between environmental factors and nutraceutics. The greatest correlation was found in valerian, where a lower water intake seemed to lead to a higher accumulation of antioxidants, and in plum, where the flavonoid content correlated positively with high temperatures. All these outcomes contribute at valorising Basilicata landraces for their aptitude to be high-quality foods and, at the same time, promoting the preservation of the agrobiodiversity for this region.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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