Antioxidant Activity, Total Phenolic Content and Morphological Traits in 1 to 4-Year-Old Muscari comosum Bulbs Cultivated in Three Growing Environments

Nunzia Cicco (), Donato Castronuovo and Vincenzo Candido
Additional contact information
Nunzia Cicco: Institute of Methodologies for Environmental Analysis, National Research Council (IMAA-CNR), Contrada Santa Loja, 85050 Tito Scalo (PZ), Italy
Donato Castronuovo: School of Agricultural, Forest, Food and Environmental Sciences (SAFE), University of Basilicata, Via Ateneo Lucano 10, 85100 Potenza, Italy
Vincenzo Candido: Department of European and Mediterranean Cultures, University of Basilicata, Via Lanera 20, 75100 Matera, Italy

Agriculture, 2024, vol. 14, issue 2, 1-12

Abstract: Muscari comosum , commonly called “Lampascione”, is an edible wild plant that grows predominantly in the Mediterranean area. In this study, qualitative characteristics (size and antioxidant properties) were investigated in “Lampascione” bulbs of different ages cultivated in three different growing environments (greenhouse, shaded greenhouse and open field). The 4-year-old bulbs grown in a greenhouse showed the best shape index. The highest total phenolic content was observed in seed bulbs for all the growing environments. The antioxidant activity expressed in terms of EC 50 average value had a fluctuating trend. However, the best antioxidant activity was found in bulbs cultivated in open fields and in the 4-year-olds grown in the greenhouse. Therefore, all these bulbs have a high antioxidant activity and can be considered as a very good nutraceutical source useful to consumers, as well as in the pharmaceutical sector, who are more and more interested in having products for a healthy and natural diet.

Keywords: Muscari comosum; phenolic content; antioxidant activity; bulb age; nutraceutical plant (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/14/2/178/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/14/2/178/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:14:y:2024:i:2:p:178-:d:1325841

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().