IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jagris/v11y2021i5p446-d555289.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Cultivating for the Industry: Cropping Experiences with Hypericum perforatum L. in a Mediterranean Environment

Author

Listed:
  • Silvia Lazzara

    (Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e l’analisi dell’Economia Agraria—Difesa e Certificazione (CREA-DC), S.S. 113 km 245.500, 90011 Bagheria, Italy)

  • Alessandra Carrubba

    (Dip. di Scienze Agrarie, Alimentari e Forestali—Università di Palermo (SAAF), Viale delle Scienze Ed.4 Ingr, L, 90128 Palermo, Italy)

  • Edoardo Napoli

    (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche—Istituto di Chimica Biomolecolare (CNR-ICB), Via Paolo Gaifami 18, 95126 Catania, Italy)

Abstract

Hypericum perforatum is an intensively studied medicinal plant, and much experimental activity has been addressed to evaluate its bio-agronomical and phytochemical features as far. In most cases, plant material used for experimental purposes is obtained from wild populations or, alternatively, from individuals grown in vases and/or pots. When Hypericum is addressed to industrial purposes, the most convenient option for achieving satisfactory amounts of plant biomass is field cultivation. Pot cultivation and open field condition, however, are likely to induce different responses on plant’s metabolism, and the obtained yield and composition are not necessarily the same. To compare these management techniques, a 4-year cultivation trial (2013–2016) was performed, using three Hypericum biotypes obtained from different areas in Italy: PFR-TN, from Trento province, Trentino; PFR-SI, from Siena, Tuscany; PFR-AG, from Agrigento province, Sicily. Both managements gave scarce biomass and flower yields at the first year, whereas higher yields were measured at the second year (in open field), and at the third year (in pots). Plant ageing induced significant differences in phytochemical composition, and the total amount of phenolic substances was much higher in 2015 than in 2014. A different performance of genotypes was observed; the local genotype was generally more suitable for field cultivation, whereas the two non-native biotypes performed better in pots. Phytochemical profile of in-pots plants was not always reflecting the actual situation of open field. Consequently, when cultivation is intended for industrial purposes, accurate quality checks of the harvested material are advised.

Suggested Citation

  • Silvia Lazzara & Alessandra Carrubba & Edoardo Napoli, 2021. "Cultivating for the Industry: Cropping Experiences with Hypericum perforatum L. in a Mediterranean Environment," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-14, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:11:y:2021:i:5:p:446-:d:555289
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/11/5/446/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/11/5/446/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mario Licata & Antonella Maria Maggio & Salvatore La Bella & Teresa Tuttolomondo, 2022. "Medicinal and Aromatic Plants in Agricultural Research, When Considering Criteria of Multifunctionality and Sustainability," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-4, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:11:y:2021:i:5:p:446-:d:555289. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.