Assessing Potential of Iranian Chicory Genotypes for Industrial Application

Chicory (Cichoriumintybus L.) is an important industrial crop which is used for inulin production. Inulin is widely applied as food ingredient due to its health promoting properties. For the first time, attempts were made to investigate thirteen endemic chicory genotypes including three pumilum populations, along with five root chicory cultivars, four witloof chicory varieties and a crispum endive to find their phylogenic relationships based on some diagnostic morphological traits as well as comparing their fresh root yield, total carbohydrate content as indicator of inulin percentage, and inulin yield in RCBD with three replications, 2013-14. In general, with the exception of Firizi landrace which was classified in C. intybus class, the other endemic genotypes exhibited the maximum similarity with C. endivia, as all formed a monophyletic clade. The highest inulin yield was obtained for ‘Orchies’, after that for ‘Schepens’, ‘Tilda’ and ‘Hera’, respectively, due to firstly their higher root yield and secondly their high inulin percentage. On the whole, fault of flowering at the first year of life cycle of endemic genotypes made intensive selection and breeding of Iranian genotypes for bolting resistance priority work before applying them to build root chicory varieties .