The essential oil from the annual plant Lepidium virginicum L. was chemically characterized in three consecutive years (2018–2020). The essential oils were evaluated in vitro and in situ on the causal agent of anthracnose in tamarillo fruits (Solanum betaceum). The main volatile constituents were phenylacetonitrile (>60 %), linalool (>10 %), limonene (>7 %) and α‐terpineol (>5 %). The essential oil (MIC, 19–30 μg mL−1), phenylacetonitrile (MIC, 45 μg mL−1) and α‐terpineol (MIC, 73 μg mL−1) caused a significant inhibition in the conidial viability from a wild strain of Colletotrichum acutatum, which was isolated and identified as a causal agent of anthracnose. The inoculation of conidia from C. acutatum in non‐symptomatic tamarillo fruits, followed by the in situ treatment with different concentrations of the essential oil (>30 μg mL−1), phenylacetonitrile and α‐terpineol, significantly (p<0.01) avoided the degradation of anthocyanins (delphinidin 3‐O‐rutinoside, cyanidin 3‐O‐rutinoside and pelargonidin 3‐O‐rutinoside) and carotenoids (β‐cryptoxanthin and β‐carotene) as well as retarded yellowing and necrosis triggered by anthracnose at least for 10 days. Our results suggest the potential use of the essential oil from L. virginicum as a natural component to preserve the nutraceutical content of tamarillo fruits against C. acutatum infection.

Mediante el uso que proporcionan las familias campesinas a la agrobiodiversidad vegetal que se encuentra en sus solares se puede entender como las comunidades perciben, interpretan y conocen el medio natural que los rodea. El abordaje más ilustrativo de elementos vegetales es generar categorías antropocéntricas de uso, definidas como aquellas donde un grupo humano da un valor utilitario a las especies, por ello, el objetivo de esta investigación fue describir el uso antropocéntrico y tradicional que manifiestan las familias y la agrobiodiversidad de especies vegetales en sus solares. Para determinar el uso antropocéntrico se aplicaron cuestionarios semi-estructurados con preguntas abiertas, recorridos y entrevistas, la información recabada se presento a las unidades familiares participantes con la finalidad de complementar dicha información. Los resultados registrados fueron 67 especies agrupados en 50 géneros y 37 familias los cuales se encuentran categorizados en nueve usos antropocéntricos: medicinales en personas, medicinal en animales, alimenticias o comestibles, ornamentales, condimentos, rituales o religiosas, estructurales, para elaboración de productos, utilizadas como leña y las que proporcionan sombra. Estos resultados ponen en evidencia que la composición vegetal de los solares, está en función de las necesidades y decisiones de la unidad familiar.

Lepechinia meyenii is a medicinal plant specialized in the biosynthesis of different types of antioxidants including the diterpenes carnosic (CA) acid and carnosol (CS). Herein we present the results of plant tissue culture approaches performed in this medicinal plant with particular emphasis on the generation and evaluation of a cell suspension system for CA and CS production. The effect of sucrose concentration, temperature, pH, and UV‐light exposure was explored. In addition, diverse concentrations of microbial elicitors (salicylic acid, pyocyanin, Glucanex, and chitin), simulators of abiotic elicitors (polyethylene glycol and NaCl), and biosynthetic precursors (mevalonolactone, geranylgeraniol, and miltiradiene/abietatriene) were evaluated on batch cultures for 20 days. Miltiradiene/abietatriene obtainment was achieved through a metabolic engineering approach using a recombinant strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Our results suggested that the maximum accumulation (Accmax) of CA and CS was mainly conferred to stimuli associated with oxidative stress such as UV‐light exposure (Accmax, 6.2 mg L−1) polyethylene glycol (Accmax, 6.5 mg L−1) NaCl (Accmax, 5.9 mg L−1) which simulated drought and saline stress, respectively. Nevertheless the bacterial elicitor pyocyanin was also effective to increase the production of both diterpenes (Accmax, 6.4 mg L−1). Outstandingly, the incorporation of upstream biosynthetic precursors such as geranylgeraniol and miltiradiene/abietatriene, generated the best results with Accmax of 8.6 and 16.7 mg L−1, respectively. Optimized batch cultures containing 100 mg L−1 geranylgeraniol, 50 mg L−1 miltiradiene/abietatriene (95 : 5 %) and 5 g L−1 polyethylene glycol treated with 6 min UV light pulse during 30 days resulted in Accmax of 26.7 mg L−1 for CA and 17.3 mg L−1 for CS on days 18–24. This strategy allowed to increase seven folds the amounts of CA and CS in comparison with batch cultures without elicitation (Accmax, 4.3 mg L−1).