Novel varieties of broccoli for optimal bioactive components under saline stress.

Background: Consumption of broccoli is increasing steadily worldwide because of the interest in its bioactive composition and nutritive value for health promotion. Novel broccoli cultivars to be established under current adverse conditions in production areas (aggressive environmental conditions and saline irrigation waters) need to maintain physical and nutritional quality for consumption and year-round supply to the markets. The newly introduced cultivars 'Naxos' and 'Parthenon' have been selected as potential candidates to replace the currently underperforming 'Nubia' variety. We aimed to compare the physical and phytochemical quality (glucosinolates, hydroxycinnamic acids, flavonoids, vitamin C and minerals), as well as the in vitro antioxidant capacity of these three cultivars under conditions of environmental stress.

Results: 'Parthenon' showed equal productivity and nutritional composition to 'Nubia', whereas 'Naxos' presented in general the best results when compared to 'Nubia' and 'Parthenon'. For phenolic compounds 'Nubia' presented the highest contents, although 'Naxos' seemed better adapted to saline stress conditions, as suggested by the lowest degree of variation in the contents of healthy phytochemicals, including phenolic compounds, when grown under such conditions.

Conclusion: 'Naxos' broccoli performed best and is a suitable candidate to replace 'Nubia' for marketable, nutritive and phytochemical quality, especially in areas of production under adverse conditions as found in Mediterranean southeast Spain (semiarid climate with saline irrigation water).