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Effects of Genotype and Environment on Phenolic Acids Content and Total Antioxidant Capacity in Durum Wheat

¹Consiglio per la Ricerca e la Sperimentazione in Agricoltura, Unità di Ricerca per la Valorizzazione Qualitativa dei Cereali (CRA-QCE), Via Cassia 176, 00191 Rome, Italy. ²Università Campus Bio-Medico, Via Alvaro del Portillo 21, 00128 Rome, Italy. ³Istituto di Metodologie Chimiche, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Area della Ricerca di Roma 1, Via Salaria km 29.300, 00015 Montelibretti (RM), Italy. ⁴Corresponding author. Phone: +39-06-3295705. E-mail: mariagrazia.degidio@entecra.it

In cereals, phenolic acid (PA) content and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) may have a wide range of variability, probably because of several factors influencing the occurrence of grain antioxidants, which include genotype, environment, and their possible interactions. However, only a few studies have investigated the influence of these factors on durum wheat. In the present study, we investigated the impact of the genetic and environmental factors on the profile and content of PAs occurring as soluble free, soluble conjugated, and insoluble bound compounds, as well as on the TAC level, in three genotypes of durum wheat grown in three different Italian agroclimatic areas during two crop years. The results show that genotype, environment, and crop year have highly significant effects on TAC levels and on PA contents. In particular, TAC and free PAs are most influenced by year, whereas conjugated and bound PAs are most influenced by environment × year and genotype, respectively. Therefore, it is evidenced that genetic and environmental factors affect the antioxidant activity and the content of the three forms of PAs in durum wheat to different extents.