Book with abstracts from the COST Action 0905 meeting in ... - UMB

ALIMURGIC HERBS AS POTENTIAL SOURCE OF MINERALS IN HUMAN
NUTRITION
Marianna Bandiera 1* , Maria Clara Zuin 2 , Paola Lucchini 1 , Giuseppe Zanin 1 , Giuliano
Mosca 1 , Teofilo Vamerali 3
1 Department of Environmental Agronomy and Crop Science, University of Padova, Italy
2 Institute of Agro-Environmental and Forest Biology, CNR, Italy
3 Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Parma, Italy
* Corresponding author: marianna.bandiera@unipd.it
Technological progress and food standardisation in the last few decades has narrowed the
number of species supporting human diet, causing a loss of genetic resources (spontaneous
herbs) and popular knowledge. The use of edible spontaneous species is known as
phytoalimurgy.
In this study, 18 alimurgic species spontaneously growing in the Veneto region and
belonging to 10 different families were screened for their mineral contents. The herbs were
grown in silty-loam soil in a phytoalimurgic garden at the experimental farm of the
University of Padova (Legnaro) during 2010-2011, and the edible parts (leaves, shoots or
roots) were harvested in May 2011. The highest concentrations of 6 nutrients (Ca, Fe, Cu,
Mn, B, Li) were found in Borago officinalis L. leaves, Cu and Li being particularly
elevated (126 and 2.9 mg kg -1 d.w., respectively). Campanula rapunculus L. provided high
concentrations of Co and Mo, but was poor in Ca (5 times lower than in B. officinalis).
Within species ranking, sprouts of Humulus lupulus L. were lowest in Fe (83 mg kg -1 d.w.,
i.e., 13× lower than the maximum), Li and Mo, but richest in P (6,970 mg kg -1 d.w.) and
Zn (77.4 mg kg -1 d.w.). P and Mg were markedly concentrated in Silene alba (Miller)
Krause. Half of the species belonged to the Asteraceae family and only rarely did they
accumulate high levels of nutrients aboveground, probably due to root retention; the few
exceptions were Crepis vesicaria L. for Ni (5.5 mg kg -1 d.w.) and Pichris echioides L. for
Cr (3.18 mg kg -1 d.w.), both twice as high as the mean for the species. Selenium was not
detected in any species, whilst S, Na, P, K, Mo and B had high bioaccumulation factors.
These preliminary results show that alimurgic herbs have an interesting natural
nutritional value, which may be further investigated and exploited through specific
agricultural practices.