# Evaluation of Garlic Landraces from Foggia Province (Puglia Region; Italy)
## 3 Results and Discussion
### Starch and Simple Carbohydrates  
The values of starch and simple carbohydrates are reported in Table 3.  
Genotypes differed distinctively in the amount of total carbohydrates and individual soluble sugars, except for glucose (0.11 g kg\({}^{-1}\) dw, on average). 'Panni', as well as the CG, showed the highest level of total simple carbohydrates, mainly due to the contribution of sucrose. The CG had the highest value of fructose, followed by 'Monteleone' and 'Amaano'. Since extensive studies on several vegetables have correlated total simple sugars with perceived sweetness [27], among the examined landraces 'Panni' had the highest sweet flavour perception.  
On average, the total carbohydrate content in our landraces (1.79 g kg\({}^{-1}\) dw) was lower than that of the CG (Table 2). Total sugars, sucrose, glucose, and fructose in our landraces were lower than those reported in other landraces from North-Central Italy [21] and Greece [24] and in several genotypes grown in Spain [25]. The value of total sugars in our landraces was also lower than that reported in the INRAN-CREA (8.4 g 100 g\({}^{-1}\) fw) or the USDA (1.0 g 100 g\({}^{-1}\) fw) databases.  
On average, among the studied landraces, the greatest fraction of simple carbohydrates was represented by sucrose (85%), followed by fructose (10%) and glucose (5%) (Table 2). sucrose is reported as the main carbohydrate in genotypes collected from various Italian regions [22; 28], Spain [25] and Greece [24]. In rare cases, fructose [25] or glucose [29] has been reported as the main sugar in garlic.  
Concerning the starch concentration (Table 2), 'Amaano', followed by CG, was the richest and 'PanniD' the poorest. On average, the starch content in our landraces (1.44 g kg\({}^{-1}\) dw; 0.054 g 100 g\({}^{-1}\) fw) was lower than that of the CG and other genotypes [26; 29]. Although starch is generally the most widespread carbohydrate reserve in the plant kingdom, in the examined landraces starch was detected in very low concentrations. Similarly, in other Italian local landraces, only traces of starch have been identified (<0.06 g 100 g\({}^{-1}\) fw), while fructans have been detected in a larger proportion [10]. Thus, it is possible to suppose that the storage function in the _Allium_ spp. bulb tissue could be attributed mainly to fructans.  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Genotype 1**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Starch**} & \multicolumn{6}{c}{**Simple Carbohydrates**} & \multicolumn{6}{c}{**Organic Acids**} \\ \cline{3-13}  & & & **Total** & **Glucose** & **Sucrose** & **Fructose** & **Total** & **Oxalic** & **Citric** & **Pyruvic** & **Malic** & **Assorbic** \\ \hline ’CG’ & 2.14 b\({}^{3}\) & 6.22 a & 0.18 a & 5.59 b & 0.45 a & 32.4 ab\({}^{3}\) & 2.94 bc & 26.5 a & 1.96 c & 0.94 e & \textless{}0.001 c \\ ’Cortigli’ & 0.83 de & 1.28 b & 0.19 a & 0.84 c & 0.25 ab & 19.6 d & 4.00 b & 9.52 c & 3.10 c & 2.91 de & 0.02 ab \\ ’PSechici’ & 1.30 cd & 0.54 b & 0.06 a & 0.33 c & 0.15 b & 19.1 d & 4.45 b & 7.51 c & 3.88 b & 3.26 c & 0.02 a \\ ’Monteleone’ & 1.78 bc & 0.57 b & 0.07 a & 0.29 c & 0.21 a & 40.7 a & 9.09 a & 18.7 b & 7.09 a & 5.77 bc & 0.03 a \\ ’Anzano’ & 3.06 a & 0.47 b & 0.10 a & 0.15 c & 0.22 ab & 17.8 d & 4.25 b & 6.60 c & 3.19 c & 3.72 d & 0.02 a \\ ’Panni’ & 1.23 d & 7.38 a & 0.10 a & 7.13 a & 0.15 b & 30.2 bc & 3.32 bc & 13.3 b & 6.38 b & 4.20 b & 0.01 bc \\ ’PanniD’ & 0.46 e & 0.50 b & 0.07 a & 0.37 c & 0.06 b & 22.5 cd & 1.88 c & 8.62 c & 3.17 c & 8.85 a & 0.01 bc \\ Significance 2 & ** & ** & ** & ns & ** & ** & ** & ** & ** & ** & ** & ** \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
* Refer to Table 1 for acronyms of garlic genotypes. 2 Significance—ns and **, *** not significant or significant at \(p\leq 0.01\) and \(p\leq 0.001\), respectively. 3 Different letters within the column indicate significant differences at \(p=0.05\).  
\end{table}
Table 3: Concentration of starch, simple carbohydrates, and organic acids (g kg\({}^{-1}\) dw) in bulbs of garlic genotypes.