Abstract
Irrigation with saline water causes significant crop yield loss. However, short-term saline application might cause less negative effects on yield yet at the same time improve quality aspects of edible products. Tagetes (Tagetes patula L.) plants were subjected to salinity (0, 50, and 100 mM NaCl) and harvested flowers were stored up to 14 days in passive modified atmosphere packaging (with or without ethanol application). Salinity of 100 mM NaCl decreased plant biomass and plant size (i.e., height) and had a negative effect on physiological processes such as stomatal closure and chlorophylls content decrease. Salinity increased flower polyphenols, antioxidant activities, and total carotenoids but decreased anthocyanins, and greater impacts were found at salinity of 100 mM NaCl, providing higher antioxidant value of the edible flowers. Short-term saline exposure of tagetes plants activated metabolic processes and as a result there was an accumulation of minerals such as N, P, Na, and Zn on edible flowers. During storage, salinity maintained but ethanol application increased the flower CO2 production. Ethanol application decreased the decay of flowers subjected to 100 mM NaCl. Flower weight losses and marketability accelerated at salinity of 100 mM NaCl after 14 days of storage. Tagetes flowers demonstrated induction in both non-enzymatic (i.e., proline content) and enzymatic mechanisms (catalase) to overcome stress caused by salinity during harvest stage and/or ethanol at storage. Our results have shown that short-term exposure to salinity and/or ethanol is able to achieve higher carotenoids and anthocyanins levels and these compounds can be considered as a new source of nutraceuticals.
Highlights
High consumer preferences in fresh produce with increased popularity of edible flowers is resulting from their important properties for human health because of their abundance in bioactive and nutraceutical components, which offers further marketing opportunities (Mlcek and Rop, 2011)
Considering the flowers produced by tagetes plants, salinity treatment increased several flowers physiological parameters tested in this study (Table 2)
Considering that H2O2 production indicates an induction of salinity stress, the greatest production was found in tagetes flowers derived from 100 mM NaCl-stressed plants, followed by the once subjected to salinity of 50 mM NaCl (Table 3)
Summary
High consumer preferences in fresh produce with increased popularity of edible flowers is resulting from their important properties for human health because of their abundance in bioactive and nutraceutical components, which offers further marketing opportunities (Mlcek and Rop, 2011). Salinity is one of the main abiotic factors that decrease crop yields and plant growth by causing hyperionic and hyperosmotic effects on soil solution around rhizosphere (Munns, 2002; Chrysargyris et al, 2018). This results in disturbance of water and minerals uptake by the roots and decrease in yield and quality of the products. Catalase dismutates H2O2 into H2O and O2, whereas POX decomposes H2O2 by oxidation of co-substrates such as phenolic compounds and/or antioxidants (Chrysargyris et al, 2018)
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