Agronomic and phytochemical aspects of cilantro and stevia crops

• Autor(a) principal: Mateus Augusto Donegá
• Data de Publicação: 2013
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da USP
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.11606/T.11.2013.tde-05022014-095330

The market of medicinal plants and herbs such as cilantro (Coriandrum sativum) and stevia (Stevia rebaudiana) has been growing due to the demand of the food, chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Leaves of C. sativum are used by many countries in the preparation of food and in folk medicine. The essential oil from the leaves has potential for use in the food industry as an antimicrobial agent and as a condiment to mask undesirable odors and flavors. Studies were conducted to evaluate the activity of the essential oil of cilantro against Leishmaniasis, and the results showed that the essential oil and its major compounds inhibited the growth of L. donovani in its different forms, indicating potential use of this plant for the production of new drugs against Leishmaniasis. From these results, another study was conducted to evaluate five materials of cilantro, a cultivar and four germplasm accessions from the North American Department of Agriculture regarding the quality of the raw material for the food and pharmaceutical industries. The materials with the highest potential to use were AMES 18596 and PI193770 for producing larger amount of dry biomass and the highest production of major compounds, which are desirable by industries. Stevia is a species with high potential to be consumed by diabetics and obese, it is a source of diterpene glycosides used as natural sweeteners. Sweeteners derived from stevia are ingredients in the production of foods, juices and soft drinks in Asia, Europe and in the Americas. The compounds responsible for the sweetness of stevia leaves are well characterized in the literature. However, good agronomic practices are still poorly studied. Some countries have worked on improving this culture and have achieved cultivars with higher yield. In the area of plant nutrition, calcium is one of the most important nutrients for the production of biomass and stevioside in stevia plants. Thus, a preliminary study was conducted to test the effect of calcium applied in nutrient solution in stevia yield, and stevioside and rebaudioside in hydroponic system. The leaf, stem and shoot biomass yield, by stevia plants were influenced by Ca rates in nutrient solutions and were maximal with 7.0, 5.7, 6.2 mmol L-1 of Ca, respectively. The production of stevioside and rebaudioside A was maximal with addition of 4.0 mmol of Ca L-1.