Abstract
Potatoes are regarded as a significant antioxidant source in human nutrition. However, different types of environmental stress may affect the level of antioxidants in their tuber tissue. In this study, two purple breeding clones and the yellow fleshed cultivar (cv.) Agave were grown in the glasshouse under control with drought stress conditions for two consecutive years. After harvest, the tubers were analysed for concentrations of antioxidants measured as ascorbic acid equivalent (ACE) and trolox equivalent (TXE) in fresh tissue and after wounding. In addition, the peroxidase enzyme (POD) activities and total amounts of anthocyanins (Ac) were assayed. Drought stress caused a significant decrease in tuber yield but had no significant effect on Ac, POD, ACE and TXE. Wounding stress significantly induced the POD activity in control and drought stressed tubers of all genotypes. Also the ACE and TXE were notably increased by wounding in cv. Agave. This was less pronounced in the purple clones which in general displayed a higher level of antioxidants. The results revealed significant differences between genotypes and that the effect of drought stress on the level of antioxidants is smaller than that of wounding stress.
Highlights
Antioxidants are gaining increasing attention in human nutrition, mainly due to growing incidence of chronic and degenerative diseases such as diabetes, arteriosclerosis, inflammation, stroke, cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, brain dysfunction, etc. [1]
Plant phenols and antioxidants are inducible by environmental stress [17], and the appropriate plant stress responses may be associated with changes in the level of all these components
The tuber yield of all three potato genotypes was decreased when plants were exposed to drought stress during growth (Table 2)
Summary
Antioxidants are gaining increasing attention in human nutrition, mainly due to growing incidence of chronic and degenerative diseases such as diabetes, arteriosclerosis, inflammation, stroke, cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, brain dysfunction, etc. [1]. Purple fleshed potatoes contain high amounts of anthocyanins and plant phenols, mainly chlorogenic acid [10,11,12], i.e., all components with a strong antioxidant activity and potential beneficial effects on human health [13]. The antioxidant activity can mitigate effects of abiotic and biotic stress by scavenging reactive oxygen species (ROS), protecting antioxidant enzymes and interacting with other molecules within the signal transduction pathway [6,15]. Plant phenols and antioxidants are inducible by environmental stress [17], and the appropriate plant stress responses may be associated with changes in the level of all these components It was interesting to study the effect of drought and wounding stress as two of the major environmental stresses for plants in agriculture on antioxidants accumulated in tuber tissue. The relation between antioxidants and the last two components mentioned was evaluated
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