Internal Fruit Quality Is Maintained in Eggplant under Mild Long-Term Salt Treatment

Abstract

Modern Solanum melongena varieties have been developed to improve the content of phenolics, sugars, and nutritionally relevant minerals in fruit. However, fruit composition might be altered due to abiotic stresses like salinity. Physiological and fruit quality traits were evaluated in four eggplant landraces under usual irrigation and moderately salty irrigation conditions (80 mM NaCl). Growing parameters measured included root length, leaf surface, and fresh weight, while fruit composition traits included sugars, phenolics, and mineral content determinations. Few differences were observed for agronomic traits, probably due to the mild tolerance of eggplant to salinity. Some varieties showed signs of salt tolerance like an increase in primary root length to overcome salt stress. Glucose was the metabolite more affected by the salt treatment in the fruit, while phenolic compounds and other metabolites studied were not altered. Significant differences were observed in the main minerals Na, K, Ca, P, and Mg, both between genotypes and treatments. Although salinity produced changes in some physiological and developmental traits, the composition of the fruit was not significantly modified for the accessions tested. Mineral, sugar, and phenolic contents were not particularly altered in unripe fruits, indicating tolerance of eggplant varieties to salinity in terms of fruit quality.