Harvest Number and Growing Season Effects on Quality and Health Related Compounds in Parsley

Abstract

Background and Purpose: Parsley is mostly grown outdoors and harvested seasonally. Farmers in many parsley producing countries, especially in the temperate region such as Turkey usually prefer spring sowings (summer growing season-SGS) and fall sowings (winter growing season-WGS) for open field production. Parsley can be usually harvested 4-8 times in temperate climates, if some special precautions are taken it may be 10-15 times. In arid, hot and cold climate regions, 2-4 harvests can be obtained. Material and Methods: Seed material of parsley obtained from regional farmers. Two growing cycles per year, i.e. for summer growing season (SGS) and winter growing season (WGS) production and harvest number, have been investigated for their effects on quality and health promoting compounds of parsley such as dry matter content (DMC), color values, chlorophylls (Chl), vitamin C, antioxidant activity and total phenol content. Results: Statistically significant differences were identified for DMC, color values, Chl and total phenol between harvest numbers for both the growing seasons. On the other hand, vitamin C and antioxidant activity were not affected significantly by harvest numbers for both the growing seasons. DMC increased with increasing harvest numbers for only the SGS. Darkest leaves were obtained from fourth harvest for the SGS; from second harvest for the WGS. First harvest had the highest Chl 'a'+'b' with 52.87 mg/100 g for the SGS; second harvest had the highest Chl 'a'+'b' (40.36 mg/100 g ) for the WGS. Total phenol content decreased with increasing harvest numbers for the SGS. Contrarily to the SGS, total phenol content increased slightly with increasing harvest numbers by 5% for the WGS. Conclusion: It can be concluded that depending on harvest numbers either an increase, a decrease or no effect in quality and health related compounds of parsley seemed to occur. The SGS may be taken more seriously, since it creates a better environment for the expression of different quality traits as compared to the WGS.

Influence of Nitrogen Sources Applied by Fertigation to an Enriched Soil with Organic Compost on Growth, Mineral Nutrition, and Phytochemicals Content of Coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.) in Two Successive Harvests

“…Overall, shoot phytochemical compounds content (except shoot AsA) decreased in the second harvest. This was also reported in parsley [ 60 ] and basil [ 61 ]. In Cichorium spinosum , the decrease in phytochemical accumulation only occurred after the second harvest [ 40 ].…”

Bioactive Properties and Phenolic Compound Profiles of Turnip-Rooted, Plain-Leafed and Curly-Leafed Parsley Cultivars

“…Therefore, the higher numbers of compounds detected in other reports may be related to the implemented extraction methods as well as to other factors already reported in the literature (genotype, growing conditions, growth substrate, harvesting time, cultivation practices etc. ), which can alter the chemical composition and the profile of secondary metabolites in plants [7,12,19,20,[33][34][35][36]. Moreover, Grúz et al [37], who detected hydroxycinnamic acids such as coumaric, ferulic and sinapic acids in parsley leaves, suggested that these compounds are prone to oxidation and degradation, which may affect their identification in plant samples.…”

“…In this line, the unstable nature of abiotic factors throughout plant vegetation adjusts the specificities of metabolic courses and the chemical profile and composition of biologically active constituents. The biosynthetic processes may be influenced by numerous factors such as the meteorological conditions, the harvesting time, the genotype, the irrigation regime and the planting density, among others [19][20][21][22]. It was also observed that parsley in the autumn harvest accumulates more polyphenols and pigment complexes (β-carotene) than plants grown in spring, which could be associated with the variation of the environmental effects.…”

Phytochemical Composition and Nutritional Value of Pot-Grown Turnip-Rooted and Plain and Curly-Leafed Parsley Cultivars

“…The origin of parsley is the Mediterranean region and the Western Asia, but today it is cultivated throughout the world. For centuries it is used as an aromatic vegetable, to garnish and to give flavour and odour to dishes and salads [2,3]. In addition, it is commonly used in the food industry, the perfume manufacturing, and for medicinal purposes in the traditional and folk medicine [3,4].…”