Genotype influence on chemical composition and sensory traits of chestnut in 18 cultivars grown on the same rootstock and at the same agronomic conditions

Chestnut germplasm is still suffering a dramatic decrease in its growing areas and therefore jeopardizing the species diversity. In this research, we applied a combination of different approaches to describe and characterize chestnut cultivars, located at the Chestnut Regional Centre in Chiusa Pesio (CN, Italy). The aim of this research is to assess the diversity in bioactive compounds and sensory attributes of different chestnut cultivars grown in the same pedological and climatic conditions, under the same agronomic management and, for the first time, on the same clonal rootstock, thus maximizing the genotype effect on the chestnut composition. The analysis included antioxidant activity, phytochemical fingerprinting (sugars, total polyphenolic content, cinnamic acids, benzoic acids, catechins, flavonols, tannins, monoterpenes, organic acids, vitamin C and sensory analysis of fruits of 18 chestnut cultivars of Castanea spp. and hybrids. The high diversity observed among the analyzed cultivars could be strictly associated to the genotype effect and underlines the large variability of the genus Castanea, and therefore the importance of in farm and ex situ conservation of local germplasm as part of a global strategy.