Effect of Harvest Age on Growth, Yield and Quality of Two Root Chicory Varieties (Cichorium intybus L.) under Egyptian Conditions | ||
| Journal of Plant Production | ||
| Article 11, Volume 8, Issue 8, August 2017, Pages 887-893 PDF (260.98 K) | ||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/jpp.2017.40887 | ||
| Authors | ||
| E. F. A. Aly1; Soha R. A. Khalil2 | ||
| 1Var. Mainten. Res. Dept. - Sugar Crops Res. Inst., Agric. Res. Center, Giza, Egypt, (ARC). | ||
| 2Sugar Technol. Dept. - Sugar Crops Res. Inst., Agric. Res. Center, Giza, Egypt, (ARC). | ||
| Abstract | ||
| Chicory (Cichorium intybus L.) related to the family Asteraceae is a winter crop and stores inulin in the taproots. Chicory is considerable a cash crop, whereas inulin is a polyfructans, which is widely used as prebiotic, sugar replacer, fat replacer, starting material for fructose syrup and oligofructose in several industrial applications.Thus,two field experiments were carried out in 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 seasons at El-Giza Agricultural Station Agricultural Research Center in Egypt (latitude of 300 03 N and longitude of 310 13 E) in a clay soil to evaluate the performance of two French chicory varieties namely Nues and Eurobees for its growth, yield and quality under three harvest ages 125, 145 and 165 days after sowing date in (October 15th in the two growing seasons). The experimental design was split plots with four replications. The results indicated that the two chicory varieties differed considerably concerning their potential of growth, yield and quality characteristics. Eurobees variety surpassed Nues in root formation, root fresh and dry yields/fed, inulin% and inulin yield/fed.Delaying harvest ages from 125 to 145 and up to 165 day after sowing caused significant increases in fresh and dry root yields/fed, inulin % and inulin yield/fed in both seasons. The interaction between Chicory varieties and harvest ages indicated that Eurobees achieved the highest significant values of root fresh, root dry and inulin yields/fed with delaying harvest age to 165 days after sowing as compared to Nues variety harvested at 125 days. Both Eurobees and Nues varieties which harvested at 165 days from sowing attained the highest significant variance of inulin% as compared to them at 125 and/or 145 days after sowing.As for enzymetic analyses of inulin extracted from sample of root dry at the three harvesting ages under this work indicated that Eurobees has the longest inulin chain length, while Nues was the shortest inulin chain length. Thus, the variation in quality traits of the two chicory varieties allows a wide spectrum of utilization in food and pharmaceutical industries in Egypt. Under conditions of this present work, it could be recommended that both root chicory varieties sowing in October and must be harvesting at 165 days after sowing to get the highest yields of fresh and dry roots as well as inulin% and inulin yield/fed, also for highest total fructose, reducing sugar percentages. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| harvest age; root chicory varieties; root and inulin yield; inulin chain length | ||
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