Impact of planting bed and culture conditions on phenolic acid production in some Lactuca undulate Ledeb populations

Lactuca undulata Ledeb. is belongs to the family of Asteraceae. One of the most important compounds of this plant is chicoric acid. The present study aimed to investigate the impact of planting bed and conditions culture on cichoric acid production in different populations. For this purpose, collected seeds from regions (Cheshmeh Ali Damghan, Qom, Mirzabailo, Biarjamand and Firoozkooh) were planted in pots with two different kinds of soil (field soil and soil collected from natural habitat) and kept in either outdoor or growth chamber. The other group of seeds was planted in 1×2 m plots in the field. This experiment was conducted using completely randomized design. The current data revealed that the Mirzabailo population that was grown in the growth chamber had the highest growth rate compared to the other populations. Also, Cheshmeh Ali, Mirzabayloo and Firoozkooh entered the reproductive phase with a delay of one month compared to Qom and Biarjamand populations. Among the investigated populations, the amount of cichoric acid in plants grown in pots and outdoors was higher than the samples grown in the field or growth chamber. The highest amount of chicoric acid (1.24 mg/kg DW) was observed in Firoozkooh population which was grown in pots containing soil of the region. The highest amount of chlorogenic acid (0. 98 mg/g DW) and caffeic acid (0.50 mg/g DW) were also observed in Cheshmeh Ali population which grown in pots containing natural habit soil. The present results showed that there is high phytochemical diversity among the studied populations.