Phytochemical profile of chickpea cultivars grown in conventional and organic farms in Southern, Italy

The increased interest in chickpea cultivation is related to consumers’ demand for organic food. Therefore, the proximate composition, seed weight (SW), total phenolic content (TPC), phenolic acids, flavonoids, total carotenoid content (TCC), and antioxidant activity (AA) of ten colored chickpea cultivars (one black desi cultivar and nine cream kabuli cultivars) were studied. Data were analyzed by ANOVA and means separated by Tuckey’s test. The cultivars were grown in organic farming in comparison to conventional farming of the Italian Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, Research Centre for Cereal and Industrial Crops of Foggia (southern Italy), in a complete randomized block design with three replicates during 2013–2014 crop season. The study demonstrated that the composition of chickpeas may be modulated by the farming system. The organic farming positively affected SW, protein content (PC), TCC, and AA indicating a good commercial quality of the crop. The AA was significantly higher in organic farming of about 6.5%. But the TPC, phenolic acids, and flavonoids were lesser than conventional farming. In organic farming, genistein and daidzein levels were significantly lower, while α-Tocopherol (α-T) and TCC were higher in conventional farming. These findings suggest their involvement in plant defense mechanism from abiotic and biotic stress. The PCA (principal component analysis) showed that the chickpea cultivars were well separated based on the prevalence of α-tocopherol in the kabuli cultivars while rutin, kaempferol 3-O-rutinoside, and kaempferol 3-O-rhamnoside were prevalent in the desi cultivar. In organic farming, the increase of content of α-T was observed solely in kabuli cultivars, while in desi cultivar, the increase was found for ferulic acid and AA.