# Evaluation of Garlic Landraces from Foggia Province (Puglia Region; Italy)
## 3 Results and Discussion
### Mineral Concentration  
The concentration of ashes, cations, and anions is reported in Table 2.  
The content of ash and cations ranged from the highest values in 'Peschici' and 'Monteleone' to the lowest in 'PanniD'. On average, landraces were richer than the CG in ash (51.6 g kg\({}^{-1}\) dry weight--dw) and cations (15.6 g kg\({}^{-1}\) dw), particularly K. 'Cortigli' along with 'PanniD' had the highest Mg concentration, whereas 'Anzano' had the highest Ca concentration. Regarding anions, the total concentration in the landraces (1.6 g kg\({}^{-1}\) dw, on average) was in line with that of the CG; 'Peschici' showed the highest values of all the individual anions, followed by 'Cortigli' (SO\({}_{4}\), NO\({}_{3}\), PO\({}_{4}\)). Among the examined landraces, 'PanniD' was the poorest in all anions and cations, except for Mg. The genotype and/or environment have been cited to be the main determinants in mineral and ash concentration of garlic bulbs [3; 23; 24]. Apart from the genotypic characteristics, the high incidence of ash and minerals in 'Peschici' in comparison with all the other landraces could also be explained as an effect associated with a higher DM concentration, due to the specific p \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Genotype 1**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Ashes**} & \multicolumn{6}{c}{**Inorganic Cations**} & \multicolumn{6}{c}{**Inorganic Anions**} \\ \cline{3-14}  & & **Total** & **Na** & **K** & **Mg** & **Ca** & **Total** & **NO\({}_{3}\)** & **CI** & **PO\({}_{4}\)** & **SO\({}_{4}\)** \\ \hline ’CG’ & 34.1 e3 & 8.93 d & 0.74 a & 7.81 d & 0.06 d & 0.32 c & 1.609 c3 & 0.000 c & 0.707 b & 0.200 c & 0.702 b \\ ’Cortigli’ & 55.0 b & 15.9 b & 0.68 a & 14.5 b & 0.14 a & 0.58 b & 1.963 b & 0.094 b & 0.618 c & 0.419 b & 0.833 a \\ ’Peschici’ & 70.0a & 22.0 a & 0.76 a & 20.5 a & 0.11 b & 0.55 b & 2.766 a & 0.140 a & 1.310 a & 0.633 a & 0.864 a \\ ’Monteleone’ & 68.7 a & 21.7 a & 0.89 a & 20.4 a & 0.11 b & 0.37 c & 1.452 c & 0.081 b & 0.627 b & 0.366 b & 0.379 d \\ ’Anzano’ & 49.4 c & 13.8 c & 0.72 a & 12.0 c & 0.07 d & 1.09 a & 1.651 c & 0.143 a & 0.602 c & 0.380 b & 0.527 c \\ ’Panni’ & 42.7 d & 14.2 c & 0.44 b & 13.1 c & 0.09 b & 0.61 b & 1.351 d & 0.030 c & 0.588 c & 0.225 c & 0.508 c \\ ’PanniD’ & 23.7 f & 5.90e & 0.30 b & 5.22 e & 0.12 b & 0.26 c & 0.732 e & 0.014 c & 0.327 d & 0.161 c & 0.231 e \\ Significance 2 & *** & *** & *** & *** & *** & *** & *** & *** & *** & *** & *** \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
* Refer to Table 1 for acronyms of garlic genotypes. 2 *** Significant at \(p\leq 0.001\). 3 Different letters within the column indicate significant differences at \(p=0.05\).  
\end{table} 
Table 2: Concentration of ashes and inorganic ions (g kg\({}^{-1}\) dw) in bulbs of garlic genotypes. Figure 1: Principal component analysis bi-plot (PC1 vs. PC2) showing the spatial distribution of the main biometrical traits as affected by genotypes. The considered biometrical traits were: Weight of cloves (W-c), number of cloves per bulb (Number-c), weight of bulbs (W-b), diameter of bulbs (Diam-b), concentration of dry matter (DM). this site such as the sandy soils with a limited use of irrigation, and the dry climate (a coastal area characterized by low rainfall and warmer temperatures) (Table 1). The amount of ash concentration in our landraces (2.0 g 100 g\({}^{-1}\) fresh weight--fw, on average) was slightly higher than the values reported in Greek garlic landraces [24] and slightly lower than in Indian garlic bulbs [26]. The K levels in our landraces (562 mg 100 g\({}^{-1}\) fw, on average) can be considered in line with those reported in official food composition databases, such as that of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) (579 mg 100 g\({}^{-1}\) fw) and of the Italian National Centre of Agriculture (INRAN-CREA) (600 mg 100 g\({}^{-1}\) fw), and higher than those reported by the United States Standard References (USDA) (401 mg 100 g\({}^{-1}\) fw).