BROCCOLI, A NATURAL ENEMY AGAINST FROST

Abstract

Broccoli during its development can be subjected to temperatures below 10°C, which seems to indicate that it has a tolerance to cold. This is a highly valued property in the agro-industry in the storage of vegetables highly susceptible to cold damage, lettuce is one of them and represents the second most cultivated horticultural product in Chile. In this research work was done to evaluate the effect of the application of a broccoli extract on the cold tolerance of cosine lettuce. To obtain extracts, the flower and “leaves and stems” were handled separately. Once the ethanolic extracts were obtained, the content of phenolic compounds was quantified using the Folin Ciocalteau reagent and the antioxidant activity through the DPPH* radical uptake test. It was determined that there were no significant differences between the flower extracts and “stem and leaf ”In relation to the content of total phenols and antioxidant capacity. It was also considered that the leaves and the stem of broccoli are by-products that have no commercial use, these extracts were chosen to continue the study. The selected extract was applied in volumes of 5 and 25 mL, in addition to the control samples, in costine lettuces that were kept under refrigerated conditions for 13 days. The results showed that the addition of 5 mL of extract reduced the damaged area and dehydration of the lettuces, concluding that the extract prevented the cold damage in cosine lettuces.