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BACKGROUND Crocus sativus L. is an autumn‐flowering geophyte belonging to the Iridaceae family, known for the medicinal and coloring uses of the spice from its dried stigmas. It is cultivated in countries with different pedoclimatic conditions. This paper reports on a two‐year research project carried out in the Basilicata region of southern Italy on the question of how to obtain the highest performance from saffron. It considers corms from three different geographical origins – ‘Sardinia’, ‘Abruzzo’ and ‘Kozani’ at three different cultivation sites, namely Castelgrande (40° 46′ N, 15° 26′ E, 781 m a.s.l.), Genzano di Lucania (40° 50′ N, 16° 08′ E, 344 m a.s.l.), and Villa d'Agri (40° 22′ N, 15° 48′ E, 638 m a.s.l.). RESULTS The highest yields were obtained in the second year by the combination of ‘Genzano di L. × Sardinia’ and ‘Castelgrande × Abruzzo’ with 28.1 and 23.9 kg ha−1 of dried stigma, respectively. Saffron quality was determined according to ISO 3632, which classifies the samples into three categories depending on the crocin, picrocrocin, and safranal content. Results highlighted that the highest values for coloring (242.1) and bitterness (97.7) were achieved in Genzano di L. during 2013. Moreover, the crocins were correlated positively with stigma yield and air mean temperature but negatively with safranal. CONCLUSION This study demonstrated, through principal component analysis (PCA), that the cultivation site with higher air temperature and without excessive rain during the flowering period generated the best stigma yield with high‐quality traits. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry

Soil physical and chemical properties play a central role in plant growth, influencing the availability of air, nutrients, and water. The aim of this two-year study was to evaluate the effect of soil texture and chemical properties (pH, electrical conductivity, organic carbon, organic matter, total, and active lime) on saffron (Crocus sativus L.) growth, yield, and quality. Corms were planted in pots filled with seven different soil textures obtained mixing an increasing quantity (33% and 66%) of sand to a clay soil (S1) and to a clay loam soil (S2) compared to a full (100%) sandy soil as a control (S7). A randomized complete block design comprising of seven pots with different types of soil (S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, and S7) replicated three times was used. The results showed that the highest flower number (320.3 n m−2), stigma yield (2.0 g m−2), daughter corm production (7.9 kg m−2), and horizontal diameter (3.1 cm) were derived from S3 and S4 soils. These were characterized by a loam and sandy-loam texture, not very calcareous, with a sub-alkaline and neutral pH, low electrical conductivity, a content of organic matter between 5.46 and 8.67 g kg−1, and a content of active lime between 21.25 and 26.25 g kg−1. According to International Organization for Standardization (ISO) references, although all spice samples belonged to the first qualitative category, S1, S3, and S2 soils recorded the highest value for coloring power (290.5, 289.1, and 287.6 A1%1cm 440 nm, respectively). The highest values of bittering (109.2 A1%1cm 257 nm) and aromatic (26.6 A1%1cm 330 nm) power were reached by S3 soil. Positive correlations were found both between color with clay and organic matter, and aroma with total calcium carbonate. In conclusion, the assessment of soil conditions is particularly important to obtain the best saffron performance in terms of stigma and daughter corms yield as well as spice qualitative traits.

Mushrooms belonging to Pleurotus genus have been demonstrated to have important nutritional and medicinal value and their regular intake prevent many diseases, reduce the infection probability and increase immunity. In order to investigate the bioactive compounds produced by seven commercial (‘142 F’, ‘142 E’, ‘D+’, ‘V turbo’, ‘V 142’, ‘A 12’, ‘V 160’) and five wild-type (‘Albino 1107’, ‘Altamura 1603’, ‘Muro Lucano 139’, ‘Conversano 1250’, ‘Albino beige chiaro 1094’) P. eryngii isolates, the following qualitative analyses were performed: Total polyphenol content, antioxidant activity (EC50 of ABTS) and antiradical power (ARP) in fresh lyophilized and dry basidioma, and water content, β-glucans and phenolic compounds in fresh samples. Standard methods were employed for each of the above mentioned aims. Total polyphenol content was diverse among the P. eryngii isolates. In particular, an elevated polyphenolic content was found in fresh lyophilized P. eryngii samples of the commercial isolates ‘V 142’ followed by ‘A 12’. The highest antiradical activity (ARP) was obtained by ‘Muro Lucano 139’ isolate. Wild P. eryngii isolates were characterized by higher water and β-glucans contents compared to the commercial ones, and the highest values were registered for the ‘Albino beige chiaro 1094’ isolate. In conclusion, the present study allowed us to identify the commercial and wild-type P. eryngii isolates from the Basilicata region, with high nutritional and medicinal value based on their bioactive compounds.

The characterization of C. sativus ecotypes is of great interest for preserving them from a possible genetic erosion due to the decrease of European cultivation surface. In this study, we evaluated four ecotypes from Italy (Sardinia and Abruzzo), Spain (Castilla-La Mancha), and Greece (Kozani) in order to detect the existence of variability and promote the biodiversity of this crop. Thirty-one traits related to saffron flowering, flower morphology, production of spice and daughter corms, vegetative development (leaf and corm traits), and spice quality, were evaluated. In addition, a genetic analysis through three PCR-based approaches, SSRs, RAPD, and SRAP was assessed. Results highlighted a phenotypic variation among ecotypes during two consecutive years. All the studied parameters were influenced by the ecotype except for the stamen length, color coordinates of tepals, leaf length, and leaf number per plant. Sardinia had a longer flowering interval, earlier flowering, and higher spice yield and quality than the other corm origins. The maximum values of morphological traits, such as stigma length, dry weight of stigmas, tepals, flowers and leaves, leaf area, and daughter corm weight were observed in the Abruzzo ecotype. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed a clear separation among ecotypes, in which Sardinia and Spain showed more similarities than Abruzzo and Kozani. Significant negative correlation was found between days to flower with stigma yield and quality. However, we could not find molecular markers discriminating among corm origins. In conclusion, this study suggests the importance of C. sativus ecotypes as precious source of biodiversity and bioactive compounds, and of their enhancement as fundamental prerequisite for a sustainable development strategy and as an agricultural diversification opportunity for growers.