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Costanza Ceccanti
Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Pisa, via del Borghetto 80, 56124, Pisa, Italy

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Journal article
Published: 26 June 2021 in LWT
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The superheated steam technology (SHST) is a heat treatment that involves a heated saturated steam. To date, the use as cooking technology has not been evaluated in depth in terms of retention of phytochemicals. In this study, the use of SHST was compared with a conventional saturated steam (CS) oven in order to evaluate their impact on different vegetables (tomato fruits, spinach leaves and artichoke inflorescences). At biochemical level, phenolic compounds, total ascorbic acid content, some specific antioxidant compounds and, consequently, the antioxidant activity have been evaluated. Results reported a decrease of bioactivity in the tomato cooked samples (in both the heat treatments) when compared with the fresh sample. Instead, spinach leaves and artichoke inflorescences reported an increase of phytochemicals and antioxidant activity in CS or SHS samples when compared with fresh ones. Few differences in the content of bioactive compounds were observed after the use of the CS or SHS technology. Further analyses are required to verify the differences between the use of superheated or conventional steam on vegetables.

ACS Style

Costanza Ceccanti; Elisa Pellegrini; Lucia Guidi. Effect of superheated steam and conventional steam roasting on nutraceutical quality of several vegetables. LWT 2021, 149, 112014 .

AMA Style

Costanza Ceccanti, Elisa Pellegrini, Lucia Guidi. Effect of superheated steam and conventional steam roasting on nutraceutical quality of several vegetables. LWT. 2021; 149 ():112014.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Costanza Ceccanti; Elisa Pellegrini; Lucia Guidi. 2021. "Effect of superheated steam and conventional steam roasting on nutraceutical quality of several vegetables." LWT 149, no. : 112014.

Journal article
Published: 20 March 2021 in LWT
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Recent studies have dealt about the phenolic compounds and the nutraceutical properties of Sanguisorba minor Scop and about the possibility of their domestication to standardise the plant production. However, it is also known that the storage conditions can affect the bioactive compounds present in plants. Thus, wild (W) and domesticated (F1, F2, F3) S. minor samples were exposed to different drying methods (oven-drying at 60 °C until constant weight named OD or freeze-drying until constant weight named FD) and studied for their content in phenolic compounds, antioxidant, antimicrobial, cytotoxic and anti-inflammatory properties. In general, OD samples showed the highest nutraceutical properties and the highest content in phenolic compounds. The most abundant phenolic compounds in both drying methods were kaempferol-3-O-glucoside and caffeoyl ester, with some differences between wild and domesticated samples. Wild samples showed higher antimicrobial and cytotoxic activity than domesticated ones, except for the OD F3 and FD F2 samples that reported cytotoxicity against HeLa cells. This study provides important information to choose the most adequate methodology to retain phenolic compounds and nutraceutical properties of S. minor species. Further researches are necessary to standardise the domestication of the studied wild species and verify the highest efficiency of the OD method.

ACS Style

Costanza Ceccanti; Tiane C. Finimundy; Sandrina A. Heleno; Tania C.S.P. Pires; Ricardo C. Calhelha; Lucia Guidi; Isabel C.F.R. Ferreira; Lillian Barros. Differences in the phenolic composition and nutraceutical properties of freeze dried and oven-dried wild and domesticated samples of Sanguisorba minor Scop. LWT 2021, 145, 111335 .

AMA Style

Costanza Ceccanti, Tiane C. Finimundy, Sandrina A. Heleno, Tania C.S.P. Pires, Ricardo C. Calhelha, Lucia Guidi, Isabel C.F.R. Ferreira, Lillian Barros. Differences in the phenolic composition and nutraceutical properties of freeze dried and oven-dried wild and domesticated samples of Sanguisorba minor Scop. LWT. 2021; 145 ():111335.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Costanza Ceccanti; Tiane C. Finimundy; Sandrina A. Heleno; Tania C.S.P. Pires; Ricardo C. Calhelha; Lucia Guidi; Isabel C.F.R. Ferreira; Lillian Barros. 2021. "Differences in the phenolic composition and nutraceutical properties of freeze dried and oven-dried wild and domesticated samples of Sanguisorba minor Scop." LWT 145, no. : 111335.

Journal article
Published: 19 January 2021 in Horticulturae
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Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) is a plant well known in traditional medicine for its many beneficial properties, but the lack of standardization regarding the product to offer to consumers limits its diffusion. To this end, drying appears to be a useful technique to offer a low-cost product that can be stored for long time, but the different drying procedures may give rise to end-products of very different quality as nutraceutical and antioxidant compounds. Nettle leaves have been dehydrated employing freeze-drying (FD), oven-drying (OD) or heat pump drying (HPD) and compared with fresh leaves following water extraction to emulate the use by final consumers. Results indicate that the best dehydration technique is HPD, which apparently gives rise to more than a doubling of total phenols and antioxidant activity in the extract compared to the water extract obtained from fresh leaves but a reduction in the level of ascorbic acid of about 39%. In addition, the content of some phenolic compounds is 10 to over a hundred times higher in the extract after HPD than that obtained from fresh samples. This confirms that the dehydration technique should be tuned in relation to the compounds of greatest interest or value.

ACS Style

Leani Martìnez Garcìa; Costanza Ceccanti; Carmine Negro; Luigi De Bellis; Luca Incrocci; Alberto Pardossi; Lucia Guidi. Effect of Drying Methods on Phenolic Compounds and Antioxidant Activity of Urtica dioica L. Leaves. Horticulturae 2021, 7, 10 .

AMA Style

Leani Martìnez Garcìa, Costanza Ceccanti, Carmine Negro, Luigi De Bellis, Luca Incrocci, Alberto Pardossi, Lucia Guidi. Effect of Drying Methods on Phenolic Compounds and Antioxidant Activity of Urtica dioica L. Leaves. Horticulturae. 2021; 7 (1):10.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Leani Martìnez Garcìa; Costanza Ceccanti; Carmine Negro; Luigi De Bellis; Luca Incrocci; Alberto Pardossi; Lucia Guidi. 2021. "Effect of Drying Methods on Phenolic Compounds and Antioxidant Activity of Urtica dioica L. Leaves." Horticulturae 7, no. 1: 10.

Article
Published: 05 November 2020 in Biological Trace Element Research
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The human diet is characterized by the intake of major minerals (Na, K, Ca, Mg, P, N) and trace elements (Zn, Mn, Se, Cu, Fe, Co, I, Cr, F, Pb, Cd) for their key role in many metabolic functions. Nowadays, the research of sources able to improve their intake is in continuous evolution, especially in the undeveloped countries. In this sense, wild edible herbs, commonly used since ancient times, can represent a good alternative to improve the daily human intake of minerals. In this study, four wild edible species, Rumex acetosa, Picris hieracioides, Cichorium intybus, and Plantago coronopus, were analyzed for their content in Na, K, Ca, Mg, Cu, Mn, Fe, and Zn and, besides, three domestications (named “soilless,” pot, and open field) were evaluated in the analyzed species in the prospective of their commercialization as valuable sources of minerals in the human diet. Nitrate and oxalate contents were also evaluated, given their negative impact on human health. Results unveil that open field domestication allowed the plants to maintain the content of major minerals similar to those measured in wild plants, especially in C. intybus and P. hieracioides. The trace elements Cu, Mn, Fe, and Zn were not recorded at high content irrespectively to the wild collection or domestications. Finally, plants grown in the open field also accounted for a high oxalate and nitrate content, especially in R. acetosa. Further researches should be aimed at decreasing the oxalate and nitrate content in the domesticated species and to promote the commercialization of the domesticated species.

ACS Style

Costanza Ceccanti; Andrea Brizzi; Marco Landi; Luca Incrocci; Alberto Pardossi; Lucia Guidi. Evaluation of Major Minerals and Trace Elements in Wild and Domesticated Edible Herbs Traditionally Used in the Mediterranean Area. Biological Trace Element Research 2020, 199, 3553 -3561.

AMA Style

Costanza Ceccanti, Andrea Brizzi, Marco Landi, Luca Incrocci, Alberto Pardossi, Lucia Guidi. Evaluation of Major Minerals and Trace Elements in Wild and Domesticated Edible Herbs Traditionally Used in the Mediterranean Area. Biological Trace Element Research. 2020; 199 (9):3553-3561.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Costanza Ceccanti; Andrea Brizzi; Marco Landi; Luca Incrocci; Alberto Pardossi; Lucia Guidi. 2020. "Evaluation of Major Minerals and Trace Elements in Wild and Domesticated Edible Herbs Traditionally Used in the Mediterranean Area." Biological Trace Element Research 199, no. 9: 3553-3561.

Journal article
Published: 06 August 2020 in Foods
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In this study, five wild edible herbs traditionally consumed in the Tuscany region (Italy) were evaluated for their potential in human nutrition. The nutraceutical characterization of Rumex acetosa, Cichorium intybus, Picris hieracioides, Sanguisorba minor, and Plantago coronopus, as well as their sensory profile were reported. Additionally, a preliminary assessment of completely different domestication of the wild species (named “soilless”, pot, and open field) was conducted to verify the possibility of their marketability, which is impossible if the plants are only gathered as wild. The open field domestication allowed to obtain plants with nutraceutical and sensory profiles similar to those of the wild species, especially in C. intybus, P. hieracioides, and S. minor. The pot domestication allow to obtain plants with chlorophyll and carotenoid contents close to those of the wild species, as well as a lower total phenolic and flavonoid content and ascorbic acid content than wild species. In the “soilless” method, R. acetosa and P. coronopus exhibited a high quality in terms of phytochemicals and antioxidant activity. Afterward, the sensory profile was strongly affected by the domestication in terms of the palatability, except for R. acetosa and P. coronopus, which displayed Hedonic Index (HI) values close to the consumer acceptability limit (HI = 6). A sensory profile similar to that of wild species was reported in open field domestication, whereas a worse sensory profile was reported in P. hieracioides and C. intybus domesticated using the soilless method. Finally, according to the preliminary assessment carried out in this study through an analysis of the general nutraceutical properties, S. minor was shown to be the most promising species thanks to its intrinsically highest nutraceutical properties considering the marketability of wild edible herbs as “new” functional food. However, further research on the bioavailability and bioactivity tests of nutraceutical compounds present in this species are required to confirm the findings of this study.

ACS Style

Costanza Ceccanti; Marco Landi; Luca Incrocci; Alberto Pardossi; Francesca Venturi; Isabella Taglieri; Giuseppe Ferroni; Lucia Guidi. Comparison of Three Domestications and Wild-Harvested Plants for Nutraceutical Properties and Sensory Profiles in Five Wild Edible Herbs: Is Domestication Possible? Foods 2020, 9, 1065 .

AMA Style

Costanza Ceccanti, Marco Landi, Luca Incrocci, Alberto Pardossi, Francesca Venturi, Isabella Taglieri, Giuseppe Ferroni, Lucia Guidi. Comparison of Three Domestications and Wild-Harvested Plants for Nutraceutical Properties and Sensory Profiles in Five Wild Edible Herbs: Is Domestication Possible? Foods. 2020; 9 (8):1065.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Costanza Ceccanti; Marco Landi; Luca Incrocci; Alberto Pardossi; Francesca Venturi; Isabella Taglieri; Giuseppe Ferroni; Lucia Guidi. 2020. "Comparison of Three Domestications and Wild-Harvested Plants for Nutraceutical Properties and Sensory Profiles in Five Wild Edible Herbs: Is Domestication Possible?" Foods 9, no. 8: 1065.

Journal article
Published: 12 June 2020 in Agronomy
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The sustainability of current farming systems has been questioned in the last decades, especially in terms of the environmental impact and mitigation of global warming. Also, the organic sector, which is supposed to impact less on the environment than other more intensive systems, is looking for innovative solutions to improve its environmental sustainability. Promisingly, the integration of organic management practices with conservation agriculture techniques may help to increase environmental sustainability of food production. However, little is known about the possible impact of conservation agriculture on the content of bioactive compounds in cash crops. For this reason, a two-year rotation experiment used 7 cash crops (4 leafy vegetables and 3 fruit crops) to compare integrated (INT), organic farming (ORG), and organic no-tillage (ORG+) systems to evaluate the possible influence of cropping systems on the nutritional/nutraceutical values of the obtained fruits and leafy vegetables. The results pointed out specific responses based on the species as well as the year of cultivation. However, cultivation with the ORG+ cropping system resulted in effective obtainment of fruits and vegetables with higher levels of bioactive compounds in several cases (11 out 16 observations). The ORG+ cropping system results are particularly promising for leafy vegetable cultivation, especially when ORG+ is carried out on a multi-year basis. Aware that the obtained data should be consolidated with longer-term experiments, we conclude that this dataset may represent a good starting point to support conservation agriculture systems as a possible sustainable strategy to obtain products with higher levels of bioactive compounds.

ACS Style

Costanza Ceccanti; Marco Landi; Daniele Antichi; Lucia Guidi; Luigi Manfrini; Michele Monti; Giacomo Tosti; Christian Frasconi. Bioactive Properties of Fruits and Leafy Vegetables Managed with Integrated, Organic, and Organic No-Tillage Practices in the Mediterranean Area: A Two-Year Rotation Experiment. Agronomy 2020, 10, 1 .

AMA Style

Costanza Ceccanti, Marco Landi, Daniele Antichi, Lucia Guidi, Luigi Manfrini, Michele Monti, Giacomo Tosti, Christian Frasconi. Bioactive Properties of Fruits and Leafy Vegetables Managed with Integrated, Organic, and Organic No-Tillage Practices in the Mediterranean Area: A Two-Year Rotation Experiment. Agronomy. 2020; 10 (6):1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Costanza Ceccanti; Marco Landi; Daniele Antichi; Lucia Guidi; Luigi Manfrini; Michele Monti; Giacomo Tosti; Christian Frasconi. 2020. "Bioactive Properties of Fruits and Leafy Vegetables Managed with Integrated, Organic, and Organic No-Tillage Practices in the Mediterranean Area: A Two-Year Rotation Experiment." Agronomy 10, no. 6: 1.

Journal article
Published: 08 June 2020 in Antioxidants
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Grafting is a widely utilized agronomical technique to improve yield, disease resistance, and quality of fruit and vegetables. This work aims to assess the effect of grafting and fruit ripening on the production, physico-chemical characteristics, and nutritional quality of fruit from Spanish local pepper landraces. Landraces “Cuerno,” “Sueca,” and “Valencia” were used as scions, and “NIBER®” as the rootstock. Two ripening stages of the fruits were sampled: green and red. Grafting improved the yield and marketable quality and did not negatively influence the physico-chemical and nutritional characteristics of the fruit. It was noteworthy that the bioactive compound contents and antioxidant capacity were more related to maturity stage and genotype, and red fruit had a higher antioxidant capacity than green fruit. However, in all the scions, grafting significantly enhanced lycopene content in both red and green fruit. Another important effect of grafting was the volatile compound composition evidenced by discriminant analyses, which was characterized for the first time in the fruit of these landraces. The rootstock and scion combination could be a way to improve not only the production, but also the fruit quality of peppers.

ACS Style

Ramón Gisbert-Mullor; Costanza Ceccanti; Yaiza Gara Padilla; Salvador Lopez; Ángeles Calatayud; Giuseppe Conte; Lucia Guidi. Effect of Grafting on the Production, Physico-Chemical Characteristics and Nutritional Quality of Fruit from Pepper Landraces. Antioxidants 2020, 9, 501 .

AMA Style

Ramón Gisbert-Mullor, Costanza Ceccanti, Yaiza Gara Padilla, Salvador Lopez, Ángeles Calatayud, Giuseppe Conte, Lucia Guidi. Effect of Grafting on the Production, Physico-Chemical Characteristics and Nutritional Quality of Fruit from Pepper Landraces. Antioxidants. 2020; 9 (6):501.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ramón Gisbert-Mullor; Costanza Ceccanti; Yaiza Gara Padilla; Salvador Lopez; Ángeles Calatayud; Giuseppe Conte; Lucia Guidi. 2020. "Effect of Grafting on the Production, Physico-Chemical Characteristics and Nutritional Quality of Fruit from Pepper Landraces." Antioxidants 9, no. 6: 501.

Journal article
Published: 09 January 2020 in Horticulturae
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Sorrel (Rumex acetosa L.) is a perennial wild herb appreciated as a folk medicine and for use in folk-traditional cuisines, and its nutraceutical properties are increasingly known and studied. Nowadays, there is a lack of knowledge about the possibility of using this species as fresh-cut produce, and no reports have investigated the physiological/biochemical changes of sorrel leaves upon storage. To test the aforementioned, sorrel seedlings were cultivated in a floating system and two consecutive harvests took place: The first cut at 15 days (C1) and second cut at 30 days (C2) after sowing. Fresh-cut sorrel leaves from C1 and C2 were stored in plastic boxes at 4 °C for 15 days and chlorophylls, carotenoids, total phenols, flavonoids, ascorbic acid, and antioxidant capacity were evaluated during the storage period. During storage, sorrel leaves from the same cut did not show significant changes in total phenolic content and antioxidant capacity, which represents a positive outcome for the maintenance of the nutraceutical value of this species. For this reason, sorrel may be a very promising species as a “new” fresh-cut leafy vegetable. However, some differences were observed between the two cuts, especially in the total flavonoid and the total ascorbic acid contents. While promising, further research will be necessary to standardize the yield and the nutraceutical content of this species in different cuts, which will be necessary to introduce and promote sorrel to consumers.

ACS Style

Costanza Ceccanti; Marco Landi; Luca Incrocci; Alberto Pardossi; Lucia Guidi. Suitability of Hydroponically-Grown Rumex acetosa L. as Fresh-Cut Produce. Horticulturae 2020, 6, 4 .

AMA Style

Costanza Ceccanti, Marco Landi, Luca Incrocci, Alberto Pardossi, Lucia Guidi. Suitability of Hydroponically-Grown Rumex acetosa L. as Fresh-Cut Produce. Horticulturae. 2020; 6 (1):4.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Costanza Ceccanti; Marco Landi; Luca Incrocci; Alberto Pardossi; Lucia Guidi. 2020. "Suitability of Hydroponically-Grown Rumex acetosa L. as Fresh-Cut Produce." Horticulturae 6, no. 1: 4.

Journal article
Published: 09 December 2019 in Antioxidants
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Wild edible plants have been used in cooking since ancient times. Recently, their value has improved as a result of the scientific evidence for their nutraceutical properties. Sanguisorba minor Scop. (salad burnet) plants were hydroponically grown and two consecutive cuts took place at 15 (C1) and 30 (C2) days after sowing. An untargeted metabolomics approach was utilized to fingerprint phenolics and other health-related compounds in this species; this approach revealed the different effects of the two cuts on the plant. S. minor showed a different and complex secondary metabolite profile, which was influenced by the cut. In fact, flavonoids increased in leaves obtained from C2, especially flavones. However, other secondary metabolites were downregulated in leaves from C2 compared to those detected in leaves from C1, as evidenced by the combination of the variable important in projections (VIP score > 1.3) and the fold-change (FC > 2). The storage of S. minor leaves for 15 days as fresh-cut products did not induce significant changes in the phenolic content and antioxidant capacity, which indicates that the nutraceutical value was maintained. The only difference evidenced during storage was that leaves obtained from C2 showed a lower constitutive content of nutraceutical compounds than leaves obtained from C1; except for chlorophylls and carotenoids. In conclusion, the cut was the main influence on the modulation of secondary metabolites in leaves, and the effects were independent of storage.

ACS Style

Costanza Ceccanti; Marco Landi; Gabriele Rocchetti; Maria Begoña Miras Moreno; Luigi Lucini; Luca Incrocci; Alberto Pardossi; Lucia Guidi. Hydroponically Grown Sanguisorba minor Scop.: Effects of Cut and Storage on Fresh-Cut Produce. Antioxidants 2019, 8, 631 .

AMA Style

Costanza Ceccanti, Marco Landi, Gabriele Rocchetti, Maria Begoña Miras Moreno, Luigi Lucini, Luca Incrocci, Alberto Pardossi, Lucia Guidi. Hydroponically Grown Sanguisorba minor Scop.: Effects of Cut and Storage on Fresh-Cut Produce. Antioxidants. 2019; 8 (12):631.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Costanza Ceccanti; Marco Landi; Gabriele Rocchetti; Maria Begoña Miras Moreno; Luigi Lucini; Luca Incrocci; Alberto Pardossi; Lucia Guidi. 2019. "Hydroponically Grown Sanguisorba minor Scop.: Effects of Cut and Storage on Fresh-Cut Produce." Antioxidants 8, no. 12: 631.