Short Lecture "Phytochemical, nutritional, and mineral content of four edible flowers"

The consumption of flowers as food dates to ancient Greek and Rome and survives to the present day as part of the traditional cuisine of different countries [1]. The consumption of edible flowers (EFs) is significantly increased in the last few years, due to both their numerous healthy compounds and the heightened awareness of people to the food quality [1]. In this context four EFs were investigated to evaluate their aromatic profile and their nutritional value. The studied species were Dianthus chinesis L., Viola cornuta L., Fucsia regia (Vand. Ex Vell.) Munz and Cucurbita moschata Duchesne. p-Dimethoxybenzene (77.5%), cis-hexenyl acetate (31.2%) and decanal, non-terpene compounds, were the main constituents in volatile profile (by HS-SPME analysis) of C. moschata and D. chinensis, and F. regia, respectively. On the contrary V. cornuta was rich in terpenes mainly represented by myrcene (36.7%) and α-farnesene (34.5%). The extraction of the essential oil (EO) was carried out on C. moschata, D. chinensis, and V. cornuta. The EOs of the first two species maintained the prevalence of non-terpenes even though heneicosane (34.9%) and behenic alcohol (39.6%) becomes the principal ones, respectively, while Viola EO was rich in (E)-palmitoleic acid (31.3%). From the nutritional point of view, F. regia have the most interesting flowers, with the highest content of polyphenols, anthocyanins, calcium, iron, and zinc. D. chinensis contains the higher soluble sugars, and common C. moschata flowers contain high quantities of crude proteins, phosphorous, potassium and magnesium and low content of secondary metabolites