This study proposes the use of a mix composed of chickpea flour and chestnut flour in cookies, aiming to improve their acceptability. Cookie properties and nutritional value were also analysed. The gluten-free cookies were made by using different mixes of chickpea and chestnut flours (0:100, 25:75, 50:50, 75:25, 100:0). Dough rheology and cookie dimensions, texture, external colour and acceptability were evaluated. The presence of the chestnut flour increased the values of G’ and G”, but reduced the loss factor (tan δ) when compared with the doughs made with chickpea flour. Chestnut flour also decreased the diameter and the spread ratio of the cookies, while increasing the hardness and darkening of the cookies. Furthermore, adding chestnut to the flour mixture increased the nutritional quality of the cookies by adding unsaturated fatty acids and fibre. The use of reduced percentages of chestnut flour (25%) resulted in masking the off-flavour of the chickpea flour, which improved the cookie’s acceptability without significantly changing the dough rheology, cookie dimensions, hardness, or lightness.

Many endangered plants such as Eryngium viviparum (Apiaceae) present a poor germination rate. This fact could be due to intrinsic and extrinsic seed variability influencing germination and dormancy of seeds. The objective of this study is to better understand the physiological mechanism of seed latency and, through artificial intelligence models, to determine the factors that stimulate germination rates of E. viviparum seeds. This description could be essential to prevent the disappearance of endangered plants. Germination in vitro was carried out under different dormancy breaking and incubation procedures. Percentages of germination, viability and E:S ratio were calculated and seeds were dissected at the end of each assay to describe embryo development. The database obtained was modeled using neurofuzzy logic technology. We have found that the most of Eryngium seeds (62.6%) were non-viable seeds (fully empty or without embryos). Excluding those, we have established the germination conditions to break seed dormancy that allow obtaining a real germination rate of 100%. Advantageously, the best conditions pointed out by neurofuzzy logic model for embryo growth were the combination of 1 mg L⁻¹ GA₃ (Gibberellic Acid) and high incubation temperature and for germination the combination of long incubation and short warm stratification periods. Our results suggest that E. viviparum seeds present morphophysiological dormancy, which reduce the rate of germination. The knowledge provided by the neurofuzzy logic model makes possible not just break the physiological component of dormancy, but stimulate the embryo development increasing the rate of germination. Undoubtedly, the strategy developed in this work can be useful to recover other endangered plants by improving their germination rate and uniformity favoring their ex vitro conservation.

We investigated the impact of open‐top chamber (OTC) passive warming systems at molecular and ecophysiological levels on Deschampsia antarctica (DA) and Colobanthus quitensis (CQ) in Antarctica. In this field campaign, OTC led to more benign conditions early in the growing season but ultimately intensified drought stress and increased extreme heat events, affecting photosynthetic capacity, metabolism and dehydration tolerance in DA; however, CQ remained relatively unaffected. DA exhibited significant reductions in photosynthesis primarily due to stomatal and mesophyll limitations. Furthermore, DA plants grown under OTC conditions showed a notable 17% decrease in leaf mass per area (LMA), a crucial trait associated with stress tolerance. Metabolic profiling revealed an increased accumulation of osmoprotectants and protein stabilisers (soluble sugars, trehalose, myo ‐inositol and galactinol), secondary metabolite precursors (tryptophan and nicotinate) and cell wall constituents (xylose) in OTC‐grown DA, suggesting a robust metabolic response to stress. However, these metabolic adjustments were insufficient to counteract the decline in LMA and maintain dehydration tolerance. This study thereby provides new insights into the physiological and metabolic limitations of Antarctic vascular plants under future warming and drying scenarios.