Phytochemical and Nutritional Profile Composition in Fruits of Different Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) Cultivars Grown in Romania

Corina Teodora Ciucure,Mihai Botu,Elisabeta-Irina Geana,Claudia Sandru,Ovidiu Tita

doi:10.3390/separations9030066

Abstract

Chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.), a valuable fruit crop, is cultivated in small areas in Romania, mostly in the west, where the moderate continental climate has a slight Mediterranean influence. This work aims to investigate the bioactive characteristics (total polyphenols, total flavonoids and antioxidant activity), individual polyphenolic composition, phytochemical and nutritional HRMS screening profiles, sugar and mineral composition of six sweet chestnut cultivars, namely ‘Marsol’, ‘Maraval’, ‘Bournette’, ‘Précoce Migoule’ and ‘Marissard’ grown at Fruit Growing Research—Extension Station (SCDP) Vâlcea, in Northern Oltenia, Romania. Fruit samples were collected in two consecutive years, in order to study the impact of genetic variability between cultivars and the influence of the different climatic conditions corresponding to different cultivation years. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA) allow the discrimination between the sweet chestnut fruits harvested in different years and different sweet chestnut cultivars. Analytical investigations revealed that sweet chestnut cultivars grown in Romania show similar bioactive, phytochemical and nutritional composition to cultivars grown in the large European chestnut-producing countries, indicating the high adaptation potential of the chestnut in the temperate continental zone with small Mediterranean influences characteristic of the southwestern area of Romania.

Highlights

The sweet chestnut is the fruit of the Castanea sativa Mill., which belongs to the genus Castanea, of the Fagaceae family, and is cultivated especially in Mediterranean Europe [1]
Sweet chestnut is an important resource in Europe due to its economic value associated with fruit, wood and tannin production and indirectly with honey production, and due to its cultural value [2]
The trial contains French sweet chestnut cultivars as: ‘Précoce Migoule CA 48’, ‘Bournette CA 112’, ‘Marsol CA 07’, ‘Marissard CA 122’, ‘Marigoule CA 15’ and ‘Maraval CA 74’, all of them provided by INRA-UREFV Bordeaux, France

Summary

Introduction

The sweet chestnut is the fruit of the Castanea sativa Mill., which belongs to the genus Castanea, of the Fagaceae family, and is cultivated especially in Mediterranean Europe [1]. Sweet chestnut is an important resource in Europe due to its economic value associated with fruit, wood and tannin production and indirectly with honey production, and due to its cultural value [2]. Chestnuts have interesting characteristics, containing significant amounts of carbohydrate dietary fiber, but small amounts of crude protein (2–4%) and low levels of crude fat (predominated by unsaturated fatty acids) (2–5%) compared to typical walnuts (walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts) [4,5], being a good source of energy with multiple health-beneficial effects. Chestnuts are low in fat, helping to decrease cholesterol levels and they contain a high amount of vitamin C, macro- (K, P, Mg, Ca, Na) and micronutrients (Mn, Fe, Zn and Cu) [6]. The fruits have a significant antioxidant activity associated with polyphenolic and organic contents [7]

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Methods

Results