Trace Elements in Edible Flowers from Italy: Further Insights into Health Benefits and Risks to Consumers

The use of edible flowers in cooking dates back to ancient times, but recently it is gaining success among the consumers, increasingly attentive to healthy and sustainable foods of high quality, without neglecting taste, flavour, and visual appeal. The present study aims to deepen the knowledge rega...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2020-06, Vol.25 (12), p.2891
Main Authors: Drava, Giuliana, Iobbi, Valeria, Govaerts, Rafaël, Minganti, Vincenzo, Copetta, Andrea, Ruffoni, Barbara, Bisio, Angela
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acmella oleracea
Cadmium
Carotenoids
Chemical elements
Composition
Consumers
Cooking
Cucurbita moschata
Cucurbita pepo
essential elements
Flavonoids
Flavor
Flavors
Flowers
Flowers & plants
Flowers - chemistry
Food quality
Freeze Drying
Health
Health risks
Hemerocallis fulva
Humans
ICP OES
Inductively coupled plasma
Italy
Lead
Low concentrations
Manganese
metals
Mineral composition
Ocimum basilicum
Optical emission spectroscopy
Principal Component Analysis
Principal components analysis
Pumpkins
Quality Control
Risk Factors
Spectrometry
toxic elements
Trace elements
Trace Elements - analysis
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Summary:The use of edible flowers in cooking dates back to ancient times, but recently it is gaining success among the consumers, increasingly attentive to healthy and sustainable foods of high quality, without neglecting taste, flavour, and visual appeal. The present study aims to deepen the knowledge regarding the mineral composition of edible flowers, an aspect not widely investigated in scientific literature. The concentrations of Cd, Co, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sr, V, and Zn have been determined by Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP OES) in flowers belonging to a wide variety of species. The study highlights that some floral species are characterized by significantly higher concentrations of certain trace elements, e.g., the flowers of for Mn, those of basil ( ) and of pumpkins ( and ) for Cu and Sr, and those of orange daylily ( ) for Ni. Potentially toxic elements are present at low concentrations, often below the limit of the detection for Cd, Co, Ni, V. In all samples, Cd and Pb are well below the maximum permitted levels in foodstuffs. It can be concluded that the edible flowers analyzed can be considered a good source of essential elements and do not present risks for the consumer health as for the mineral composition.
ISSN:1420-3049
1420-3049
DOI:10.3390/molecules25122891