The increasing interest in healthy and natural foods has raised the attention towards uncommon or unexplored ingredients, such as edible flowers. These products are proven to be a rich source of bioactive compounds, for example, vitamins or polyphenols that play an important role in health promotion and disease prevention. However, plant species with edible flowers are numerous and most of them still need to be studied with this aim. The high species richness of North-Western Italy provides interesting perspectives in the use of wild edible flowers, which are currently underutilized, but can be a valuable food source or food supplement for healthy diets. In this framework, the phytochemical composition of 22 wild edible flowers was analysed and compared with that of four cultivated species ( Borago officinalis L., Calendula officinalis L., Tagetes patula L. and Tropaeolum majus L.) to evaluate their potentiality as sources of bioactive compounds. The total polyphenol content (TPC) and antioxidant activity of the fresh flowers were assessed, together with their phenolic profiles and vitamin C content, through spectrophotometric and chromatographic analyses. The evaluated parameters varied widely among species, with Paeonia officinalis L. and Rosa pendulina L. showing the highest values of polyphenols (1,930 mg gallic acid equivalents (GAE) · 100 g ⁻¹ and 1,774 mg GAE · 100 g ⁻¹ , respectively), followed by Rosa canina L. (1,397 mg GAE · 100 g ⁻¹ ) and Geranium sylvaticum L. (1,268 mg GAE · 100 g ⁻¹ ). The same species also showed the highest antioxidant activity, measured with three different assays [ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2′-azino-bis-3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS)]. The phenolic profile differed among the studied species, with Dianthus pavonius Tausch and R. pendulina having the highest sum of detected polyphenols (2,522 mg · 100 g ⁻¹ and 2,366 mg · 100 g ⁻¹ , respectively). Vitamin C was identified in all but two flowers ( Allium ursinum L. and B. officinalis ) and Primula veris L. had the highest amount (45 mg · 100 g ⁻¹ ). The study showed that wild edible flowers outperformed the cultivated species, except for T. majus , providing new insights for the use of wild edible flowers as sources of bioactive compounds.

Throughout the last decades, agricultural abandonment in European mountain areas has caused changes in traditional livestock management with consequences for semi-natural grassland use and vegetation. In the Western Italian Alps, continuous extensive grazing has become the simplest and the most common system for managing large cattle herds. As a result, limited grazing in many rugged locations has led to an extensive shrub-encroachment of semi-natural grasslands in the sub-alpine and alpine belts. A study was conducted to assess if the provision of mineral mix supplements (MMS): (1) increases the use of steep and shrub-encroached locations by beef cows, and (2) helps restore meso-eutrophic grassland vegetation around supplement-deployment sites. During the summer grazing season, MMS were placed within 10 steep and shrub-encroached areas in two adjacent pastures (364 and 366 ha), and 12 cows were tracked with GPS collars. For each supplement site, a paired control site was identified, and vegetation surveys were performed in the surrounding areas of both sites. Placement of MMS increased the use of areas within 12 m of supplement locations compared with corresponding control areas. Cattle use of areas within 100 m of the MMS sites was also greater than expected by chance. The use by cattle, associated with trampling, grazing and faecal deposition, reduced the cover of shrubs and oligotrophic herbaceous species and increased the average nutrient N-value and forage pastoral value of the new vegetation types established around MMS sites 2 years after their use by cattle. Strategic placement of MMS appears to be a sustainable practice to restore sub-alpine and alpine shrub-encroached grasslands. Nevertheless these results must be considered preliminary as a longer period is needed to evaluate the long-term effectiveness of this practice for the restoration of semi-natural grasslands.