Correlation of pungency, thiosulfinates, antiplatelet activity and total soluble solids in two garlic families.

CAVAGNARO, P. F.; SENALIK, D.; GALMARINI, C. R.; SIMON, P. W.

Conferencia; American Society for Horticultural Science ASHS-2005 Annual Conference.; 2005

Allium plants possess organosulfur compounds and carbohydrates that provide unique flavor and health enhancing properties. In previous studies, onion F3 families, significant phenotypic and genetic correlations have been reported between pungency, in vitro antiplatelet activity (IVAA), and soluble solids content (SSC); although in other studies SSC and pungency have not always been correlated.  In this study we analyzed SSC, pungency, garlic-induced in vitro antiplatelet activity and the content of three predominant thiosulfinates in bulbs from two garlic families obtained from unrelated self-pollinated plants.  A strong positive correlation was observed between pungency and IVAA for both sample sets, indicating that it will be difficult to develop garlic populations with low pungency and high IVAA. Allicin was the most abundant thiosulfinate and its content was positively correlated with pungency and IVAA (r= 0.70 and 0.74, respectively). The thiosulfinates AllS(O)SPropenyl and AllS(O)SMe were also positively correlated with pungency and IVAA. When compared with IVAA, AllS(O)SMe had higher “r” values than AllS(O)SPropenyl (0.88 and 0.50, respectively). These differences could reflect differential platelet anti-aggregatory properties of different thiosulfinates.  SSC was not correlated with IVAA, pungency or thiosulfinates content, suggesting that soluble solids in garlic can be independently selected.