Characterization of argentine garlic cultivars by their pungency.

NATALE, P.J.; CAMARGO, A.; GALMARINI, C.R.

ACTA HORTICULTURAE

Año: 2005 p. 313 - 316

0567-7572

Garlic is the main vegetable exported by Argentina. At INTA, there is a strong breeding program that had released several cultivars. The aim of this work was to characterize Argentine garlic cultivars by their pungency. In order to do that, first it was necessary to adapt the Schwimmer and Weston (1961) technique to measure pungency to the local laboratory conditions. Then, the cultivars ‘Morado INTA’, ‘Nieve INTA’, ‘Castaño INTA’, ‘Fuego INTA’ and ‘Sureño INTA’ were assessed using the adapted technique. The bulbs were evaluated after six months of postharvest. Ten cloves per sample was the analytical unit. All the cultivars had high levels of pungency, between 64 to 97 μmol/g of enzymatic pyruvic acid. The red garlic cultivars were less pungent than the white, purple and brown garlic cultivars. The most pungent cultivars were ‘Castaño INTA’ (96.4 ± 4.2 μmol/g) and ‘Nieve INTA’ (94.7 ± 8.8 μmol/g), while ‘Morado INTA’ (80.1 ± 5.6 μmol/g) showed an intermediate pungency. ‘Fuego INTA’ was the least pungent cultivar (64.9 ± 4.2 μmol/g).