Terracrepolo (Reichardia picroides (L.) Roth.): Wild food or new horticultural crop?

The extreme adaptability of Reichardia picroides to stressful environments motivated experiments aimed to investigate the genotype-environment interactions on the nutraceutical parameters of this ancient food. The concentrations of antocyanins, flavonol glycosides, carotenoids and total phenols and the antioxidant capacity were significantly higher in the inland “Agnano” ecotype than in the coastal “Calafuria” ecotype. As expected, the cultivation of R. picroides generally led to a decrease in the compositional parameters except the content of carotenoids. A sodium chloride solution was sprayed onto the cultivated plants to simulate the stress caused by marine aerosols. However, the hypothesis that salt stress could act as an elicitor for nutraceutical substances was not validated, particularly in the Calafuria ecotype that evolved close to the sea shore. The nutraceutical performances of the wild ecotypes could be retained in cultivation through a chronic stress, which could allow the activation of the physiological response.