This study was aimed at observing the effect of the grafting of tomato plants on morphological (vegetative growth), production and nutritive characteristics (quantity and quality of production). For this purpose, the ‘Lorely F1’ cultivar was used as a scion grafted onto the ‘Beaufort’ rootstock. Plants were cultivated with a stem and two stems. The observations collected in this study were concerned with the characteristics of plant growth. The studied morphological characteristics were plant height, stem diameter and number of leaves, and the studied production characteristics were the characteristics of fructification and productivity (the average number of fruit per plant, the average weight of the fruit, production per plant). Particular attention was paid to the nutritional characteristics of the fruit, to the fruit quality (total soluble solids, total sugar, acidity, vitamin C, antioxidant activity (by the Trolox method) and the contents of lycopene and beta-carotene). The results showed that grafting positively influenced the growth and production characteristics. Grafting of tomato plants had an appreciable effect on the vegetative growth of the variant 2-grafted tomatoes with a stem. The best option in terms of productivity and production was the variant 3-grafted tomatoes with two stems, which yielded 9.2 kg per plant. Fruit quality was not improved in any of the grafted variants.

No abstract

Rosa canina (wild rose, bush, bramble, dog rose, rosehip) is a shrub commonly encountered in the wild flora of Romania, spread from the coast up to altitudes of 1200 m (1700), with low requirements to pedoclimatic factors. From this species are used the false-fruits (Cynosbati fructus) mature, dried, harvested from wild flora or cultures, with food and therapeutic importance, due to their multiple properties, but mostly because of its high content of vitamin C. In this way, it were studied the germoplasm sources existent in some areas of Oltenia (Romania) to identify valuable biotypes from biochemically and technologically point of view. The results indicate a high and very high variability of the analyzed parameters. Thus, the content of TSS was recorded between 10% (B2) and 18% (M1), vitamin C varied from 53mg/100g (B3) to 563 mg /100g to populations (S1 , S3) and acidity from 1.4% (B3) to 3.6% (M4). Recorded values for the mass of 100 fruit, between 117g (A1) and 286g (B3 and T4) and the percentage of pulp/100g fruit ranged from 49.2 (M1) and 66.5 (T1).

Potato is an important source of food, and in recent years, new genotypes have emerged on the European market, which particularly differentiate by the colour of tubers. The current study investigated and compared phytochemical properties and antioxidant activity of six potato cultivars: two of those with yellow-fleshed (Carpatin, Brasovean) and four with red and purple-fleshed (Cranberry Red, Mountain Rose, Purple Majesty, and Blue Congo), which were cultivated under the same climatic and soil conditions. The antioxidant activities were evaluated using two antioxidant systems 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2'-azinobis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS). The results show that yellow-fleshed cultivars had higher total soluble substance content; red and purple-fleshed cultivars had a higher content of antioxidant compounds. Cv. Blue Congo it was recorded the highest antioxidant capacity in terms of DPPH and ABTS, of 164.17 μmol ascorbic acid (AsA)/100 g FW (fresh weight) and 114.96 μmol AsA/100 g FW, respectively. The highest total phenolic content was registered at cv. Purple Majesty of 63.54 mg gallic acid equivalents/100 g FW. Regarding flavonoids, the highest content was 40.96 mg quercetin equivalents/100 g FW for cv. Blue Congo and anthocyanin at cv. Purple Majesty of 113.19 mg/100 g FW.

No abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify the cultivars of potatoes with good production capacity and high nutritional value under ecologically culture conditions. The biological material consisted of five new potatoes cultivars: Brasovean, Carpatin, Cranberry Red, Montain Rose, Purple Majesty and Blue Congo. These new, highly pigmented varieties have yellow, pink or red peel and pulp, due to its high anthocyanin content. In order to achieve the objective, the productivity elements were determined: number of tubers and medium weight/plant, productivity as well as starches, carbohydrates, vitamin C content and antioxidant capacity. The obtained results were statistically interpreted by the analysis of variance, and the differences between genotypes were estimated by the threshold of significance at p≤0.05%. Cultivar Carpatin recorded the best production (32.7 t/ha) and Cranberry red and Montain Rose cultivars recorded the highest content in vitamin C (17.6 respectively 18.64 mg/100g f.m) and Blue Congo with highest antioxidant capacity (162.65 DPPH μMTE/100g).

No abstract

In Romania, the sweet potato is recently cultivated, especially in the South-West region. This region has a temperate continental climate that is characterized by the lack of water in the soil and atmosphere and by a diversity of soil types, very important factors for the cultivation of this species. The lack of information about the real effects of the environmental factors on the nutritional quality and the production of sweet potatoes grown in this area led to this study. Therefore, the present paper aims to evaluate the nutraceutical content of 5 sweet potato genotypes, such as: TSS (total soluble substance), total carotene, reducing sugars, vitamin C, phenolic compounds, flavonoid content and antioxidant activity (determined by DPPH and ABTS) grown in the specific climatic conditions of this region. There was found a differentiated nutritional quality depending on the genotype, so that genotype 5 was rich in carotene (59.29 μg/g FW) and vitamin C (36.56 mg/100 g FW). The data presented in this study also refer to the total number of roots/plant, the average weight/root, the total production/ha, the biomass production/ha and the production index. Regarding these elements, genotype 3 recorded a biomass production of 39.5 t/ha and a total tuber production of 50.3 t/ha. The results presented in this study indicate that the production of this species is climate dependent, which influences important metabolites in tubercles, that plays an essential role in organoleptic properties.