Abstract
“Aglione della Valdichiana” is listed among the Traditional Agronomic and Edible Products of Italy, as it is a typical product of the Chiana Valley (Tuscany, Italy). It is also known as “elephant garlic”, due to the dimension of its cloves, and, other than in the Italian Mediterranean area, its presence is also reported in North Africa and Southwest Asia. The current botanical classification identifies it as a leek variety (Allium ampeloprasum L.), although its appearance, except for its larger dimensions, resembles that of garlic. In the present study, the spontaneous volatile emission of whole and cut cloves of “Aglione della Valdichiana” (elephant garlic), garlic, and leek has been profiled by headspace solid phase micro-extraction. The results have been subjected to statistical analyses (analysis of variance, hierarchical cluster, and principal component analysis) to assess whether the chemical profile confirmed the botanical proximity of elephant garlic and leek, rather than garlic. The phytochemical volatiles evaluation indicated a higher proximity of elephant garlic to garlic, rather than leek, at least for the Chiana Valley specimen analyzed in this study.
Highlights
With a physical appearance like garlic, but botanically and genetically characterized as a leek variety, the ‘Aglione della Valdichiana’ is a species of Allium (Amaryllidaceae family) typical of the Italian Chiana Valley, which lies between the Tuscan provinces of Arezzo and Siena, and the Umbrian provinces of Terni and Perugia
69 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were detected among all the analyzed headspaces (HSs), whose compositions were identified in percentages ranging from 96.3% to 100%
Diallyl disulfide was found as the most abundant compound in the HSs of elephant garlic and garlic samples: in the former, its relative composition reached 38.0% and 61.4% in the whole and cut samples, respectively; in the latter, the whole and the cut sample HSs were dominated by this compound, as it amounted up to 83.4% and 75.8%, respectively
Summary
All the samples were grown in Torrita di Siena (SI), in the Chiana Valley of Tuscany, Italy (43◦ 100 20 N, 11◦ 470 1 E), by a local producer. The specimens have been deposited and registered in the herbarium of the Botanic Garden of Pisa with the following voucher numbers: Erbario Generale-N.A. 1049 Allium sativum L.: 031415; Erbario Generale-N.A. 1049 Allium ampeloprasum L.: 031416; Erbario. The headspace spontaneous volatile emissions of the whole and cut forms of the three species were sampled by HS-SPME. The equilibration was performed at room temperature for 30 min for all the samples prior to the volatile adsorption.
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