Hort. Sci. (Prague), 2025, 52(3):272-280 | DOI: 10.17221/44/2024-HORTSCI

The influence of LED light on the development and antioxidant status of broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica) microgreensOriginal Paper

Suzana Pavlović ORCID...1, Zdenka Girek ORCID...1, Jelena Damnjanović ORCID...2, Svetlana Roljević Nikolić ORCID...2, Dragana Stevanović ORCID...2, Milan Ugrinović ORCID...3
1 Institute for Medical Research, National Institute of Republic of Serbia, University of Belgrade, Group for nutrition and metabolism, Belgrade, Serbia
2 Research and Development Institute Tamiš, Pančevo, Serbia
3 Institute for Vegetable Crops Smederevska Palanka, Smederevska Palanka, Serbia

The aim of the research was to examine the influence of different light treatments on the growth, phytochemicals and antioxidant potential of broccoli microgreens. Plants were grown in a growth chamber under LED (light-emitting diode) cold white, red and blue light and under fluorescent cold white light (control). The results showed that white and blue light treatments were the best for microgreen growth. Higher concentration of pigments was recorded in plants grown under LED light compared to those grown under FL (fluorescent lamp) light. The content of phenols and flavonoids had a positive and significant correlation with DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) antioxidative capacity (r = 0.66 and r = 0.90, respectively). The first two principal components account for 97.92 % of the total variation of all observed traits in this trial. Based on the PCA (principal component analysis) results, it can be concluded that the traits total phenols content, carotenoid content, chlorophyll a and b content make up the largest share of variability in the obtained results and that the red light conditions were the most unfavourable for the content of phytochemical compounds and antioxidant potential.

Keywords: broccoli; flavonoids; LED lights; phenols; photosynthetic pigments

Received: March 12, 2024; Revised: April 3, 2025; Accepted: April 10, 2025; Prepublished online: September 15, 2025; Published: September 19, 2025  Show citation

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Pavlović S, Girek Z, Damnjanović J, Roljević Nikolić S, Stevanović D, Ugrinović M. The influence of LED light on the development and antioxidant status of broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica) microgreens. Hort. Sci. (Prague). 2025;52(3):272-280. doi: 10.17221/44/2024-HORTSCI.
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