Benvenuti Stefano, Mazzoncini Marco
Department of Agricultural, Food and Agro-Environmental Sciences, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
Front Plant Sci. 2021 Feb 22;11:569499. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2020.569499. eCollection 2020.
Floriculture and horticulture have always been two parallel and very distinct agronomic realities. Floriculture is concerned with meeting the ornamental needs of our urban ecosystems, while horticulture is based on meeting food requirements. These two activities have now converged toward a food chain where flowers are conceived of as a sort of "new vegetable" and one of the most promising novelties to satisfy the growing need for food innovation both in terms of an organoleptic and nutraceutical profile. This novelty has rapidly evolved, especially following the growing scientific evidence of the human health benefits of flowers used as food. The typically high pigment concentration of the corollas (especially flavonoids and carotenoids), which have evolved to chromatically attract pollinators, indicates a marked nutraceutical activity especially in terms of antioxidant power. In this review, we first attempted to explore which species are most promising and which should be avoided due to real or suspected toxicity problems. The nutraceutical virtues were therefore highlighted trying to focus attention on those "functional phytochemicals" capable of counteracting some specific human pathologies. Furthermore, the organoleptic profile of edible flowers was investigated since this is one of the least known aspects. The cropping systems suitable for their cultivation were therefore hypothesized and finally the criticalities of edible flowers were addressed in terms of shelf life and marketing opportunities.
花卉栽培和园艺一直是两个并行且截然不同的农学领域。花卉栽培关注满足我们城市生态系统的观赏需求，而园艺则以满足食物需求为基础。如今，这两项活动已朝着一条食物链汇聚，在这条食物链中，花卉被视为一种“新型蔬菜”，是满足食品创新不断增长需求的最有前景的新奇事物之一，无论是在感官特性还是营养保健方面。这种新奇事物发展迅速，尤其是在越来越多科学证据表明食用花卉对人类健康有益之后。花冠通常具有高色素浓度（尤其是黄酮类化合物和类胡萝卜素），其进化目的是通过颜色吸引传粉者，这表明其具有显著的营养保健活性，特别是在抗氧化能力方面。在这篇综述中，我们首先试图探究哪些物种最有前景，以及哪些物种因实际或疑似毒性问题应予以避免。因此，我们突出了营养保健功效，试图将注意力集中在那些能够对抗某些特定人类疾病的“功能性植物化学物质”上。此外，我们还研究了可食用花卉的感官特性，因为这是最鲜为人知的方面之一。因此，我们推测了适合其种植的栽培系统，最后从保质期和市场机会方面探讨了可食用花卉面临的关键问题。
