Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Total Phenolic Content (TPC) and Total Antioxidant Capacity (TAC)
The results of our study
inferred greater values of TPC and TAC in the tretment with the
biofertilizer. The TPC and TAC increase resulting from the biofertilizer application might be
due to highly intensive mineralizing processes in the substrate and increased the physiological
functions and activity of plant root. On the other hand, the application of the chemical
fertilizer exhibited an inhibitory effect, which is indicated by low values of most phenolic
compounds probably associated with changes in the organic matter content.
It is also interesting that cv. 'Joly' showed an increase in TPC, especially if we consider a
similar positive trend both in the bio- and chemical fertilizer treatment. The high TPC of the
'Joly' fruit can be arguably explained by the response of the nutrient application as well as
genetically controlled accumulation of individual phenolics. Despite the highest level of
pelargonidin-3- glucoside detected in cv 'Clery', no significant increase of TPC was observed.
Even though the potential health benefits of phytochemicals found in strawberries have
received ample attention in the literature, the mechanisms by which they exert their health-
promoting effects are still unclear. Most of the past research has been focused on the
antioxidant properties of phenolics (Määttä-Riihinen et al., 2004), but the antioxidant capacity
of individual phenolic compounds cannot always be evaluated because of the potential
interactions among them. Therefore, the determination of the TAC allows a more realistic
evaluation of the protective effects of the analyzed fruit (Milivojević et al., 2011).
In our study, the highest level of TAC was quantified in cv. 'Dely', which was particularly
rich in phenolic acids. Besides health benefits, hydroxycinnamic and hydroxybenzoic acids
play an important role in determining the genotype-to-genotype differences in the
phytochemical composition. According to the literature reports (Tulipani et al., 2008;
Cordenunsi et al., 2005), a range of hydroxycinnamates, mainly caffeoyl and ferulic esters
and other classes of phenolic acids, are found in strawberry even if present at low
concentrations. Although
p
-coumaric,
gallic and p
rotocatechuic acids were detected in minor
quantities in strawberry fruits, ellagic acid as one of the main phenolic compounds in the
present study, proved to be highly interesting.
C
ONCLUSION
Efficient strawberry nutrition management should ensure both enhanced and sustainable
production. The results presented in this chapter reveal that fertilizer type is an important
factor significantly affecting strawberry production. Bio- and chemical fertilizers showed
their benefits and limitations in terms of biological productivity of soil. The investigation into
the number of the different microorganism groups showed that the biofertilizer application
not only provides the most favorable conditions for the development of soil microorganisms
but also exhibits a pronounced effect on the
generative potential, total phenolic and individual
phenolic compounds, as well as the antioxidant activity. On the other hand, the chemical
fertilizer gives the best results in terms of the morphometric parameters of strawberry fruits.
This chapter also demonstrated variability in yield-related characteristics, fruit quality
parameters and antioxidant features of each genotype affected by the different fertilizer
treatments. Nowadays these aspects of investigations are considered highly useful for the
Search WWH ::
Custom Search