Influence of Drought Stress on Physiological Responses and Bioactive Compounds in Chicory (Cichorium intybus L.): Opportunity for a Sustainable Agriculture

Abstract

Food production from agriculture depends on irrigation, mainly in poor rainfall zones, such as the Mediterranean region. Chicory is an important food crop component of the Mediterranean diet. Considering the increasing incidence of drought due to climate change, this study was carried out in order to investigate the effect of moderate drought stress on photosynthesis, leaf gaseous exchange, growth, and tocol and carotenoid composition of chicory under field conditions. Chicory was subjected to rainfed condition stress in a randomized block design. At 50 days of treatment, drought stress caused about 48% reduction in dry matter, 30% in leaf relative water content, and about 25% in photosynthetic rate and stomatal conductance, whereas mesophyll conductance was not affected. A strong relationship between photosynthetic rates and stomatal conductance was observed. In the rainfed chicory, at the end of treatment, an increase (about 20%) in carotenoid and tocopherol content was found, thus, giving further insight into the positive effect of moderate drought stress on these compounds. This finding suggests that under proper rainfed conditions, it is possible to increase and save the quality of dry chicory, although yield loss occurs.

Development of functional pasta enriched with green leafy vegetables: impact on liposoluble compounds, nutritional, technological and sensorial quality

“…All used vegetables have been proved to have high amounts of tocols, in the form of α and γ‐tocopherol, as reported in our previous published papers (Fratianni et al ., 2021; Delfine et al ., 2022). The formulation of the enriched pasta with 15% vegetables was made considering the initial tocol amounts of chard, being the sample with the less contents (about 14 mg/100 g of α‐tocopherol and 2.2. mg/100 g of γ‐tocopherol, expressed on dry weight).…”

“…Table 3 shows the content of single and total tocols of the developed pastas, expressed as mg/100 g of fresh weight (f.w.). The tocol pattern reflected that of semolina (whose main isomer is β‐tocotrienol) and of the original vegetables used for the enrichment (Fratianni et al ., 2021; Delfine et al ., 2022). The total tocol content significantly increased in the enriched pasta samples, from two to four‐folds in BP and SP, respectively ( P < 0.05).…”

“…All used vegetables were rich sources of carotenoids so to be declared as sources of vitamin A (Fratianni et al ., 2021; Delfine et al ., 2022). The highest carotenoid amounts were found for lutein, followed by β‐carotene and the epoxycarotenoids neoxanthin and violaxanthin.…”

“…The composition of carotenoids in the developed and commercial pasta samples, expressed as mg/100 g f.w., is reported in Table 4. The carotenoid pattern reflected that of the used raw ingredients (Fratianni et al ., 2005, 2021; Delfine et al ., 2022). The total carotenoid content was considerably higher in samples enriched with green leafy vegetables ( P < 0.05), with low values in the control and commercial spinach pasta samples.…”

CiXTH29 and CiLEA4 Role in Water Stress Tolerance in Cichorium intybus Varieties

“…Several pieces of evidence support the positive effect of water availability on chicory yield [ 42 , 43 ]; furthermore, the reduced water availability imposes morphological changes on chicory plants, such as in the canopy structure, and this negatively affects biomass accumulation [ 15 , 16 ]. In a recent study, chicory plants submitted to the stressor of rainfed conditions showed an increase in carotenoid and tocopherol contents, suggesting thee positive effect of moderate rainfed drought stress on the plants [ 44 ].…”