Sustainable diets and biodiversity

250

levels and their bioactivity could indicate a better

potential for health. Several antioxidant capacities

for Valtellina typical foodstuffs appear to have

higher values compared to literature data. A strong

difference has been obtained for cherries of

“Aprìca”. Chicory (from Calabria and Lazio) repre-

sents an important source of micronutrients, that

give to this vegetable a resistance to cold tempera-

tures, consenting growth of the plant during all year.

It needs to be underlined that wild chicory appears

to have higher phytochemicals and its extracts

seem to exert cytotoxicity in human epithelial

colorectal adenocarcinoma cell (caco-2) and so pro-

moting good health and preventing or modulating

diseases.

Our data highlight the direct linkages between bio-

physical attributes of location and agricultural po-

tential to improve crop growth models. On this basis

the typical local production mostly in terms of qual-

ity and safety of the products should become a base

for maintaining a correct nutritional plane. In addi-

tion, the conservation and valorization of local/tra-

ditional products could increase the adoption of

more sustainable agricultural systems together

with the adoption of practices more respective of the

environments and the natural habitats.

Acknowledgements

This study was performed within the “Food Quality”

and “Biovita” projects supported by MiPAF.

Figure 2 .Effect of way of cooking on bioactive molecules and total antioxidant capacity in cultivated and wild

chicory from Lazio.

Way of cooking

Lutein content (mg/kg)

Pan-friedproduct

productBoiled

productFresh

Wild chicory

Cultivated chicoryi

0,00 20,00 40,00 60,00

i

Way of cooking

FRAP (mmol/kg)

Paproductn-fried

pBoroductiled

productFresh

Wild chicory

Cultivated chicory

0 , 00 5, 00 10 , 00 15, 00

v

Way of cooking

β--carotene (mg/kg)

Pan-friedproduct

productBoiled

productFresh

Wild chicory

Cultivated chicoryv

0 50 100 150

v

Way of cooking

TEAC(mmol /kg)

Pan-productfried

productBoiled

productFresh

Wild chicory

Cultivated chicoryv

0 1 2 3 4

c

v