Seasonal Fluctuations of Crop Yield, Total Phenolic Content and Antioxidant Activity in Fresh or Cooked Borage (Borago officinalis L.), Mallow (Malva sylvestris L.) and Buck’s-Horn Plantain (Plantago coronopus L.) Leaves

Abstract

The interest for wild edible plants as functional food is increasing among consumers in the Mediterranean countries because of their high content of antioxidants. However, a critical point is the seasonality of wild edible species due to their spontaneity and the cultivation results necessary to satisfy market requests. Moreover, cooking may be necessary for most wild edible species to enhance their palatability. In the present experiment, the crop yield, total phenolic content (TPC) and antioxidant activity (AA) of leaves were determined in three wild edible species (Borago officinalis L., Malva sylvestris L. and Plantago coronopus L.), which were hydroponically cultivated in winter and in spring. Plants were recurrently harvested three times and the leaves were analyzed raw or after boiling in water for different times based on their palatability as evaluated by a hedonic test (2 min for B. officinalis, 2.5 min for M. sylvestris and 8 min for P. coronopus). The total crop yield was promising, especially for P. coronopus, with small differences between winter and spring (9.3 and 13.8 kg m−2, respectively). The boiling treatment caused a loss of TPC and, in some cases, of the AA in B. officinalis and M. sylvestris due to the solubilization of phenolic and other antioxidant compounds in boiling water. Conversely, in P. coronopus, TPC and AA were higher in boiled leaves than in fresh leaves, likely due to the strong binding of phenolic compounds to the cell wall. This binding might lead to the inefficient extraction of these compounds through the boiling treatment.