BIOCHEMICAL CHANGES UNDER ARTIFICIAL LED LIGHTING IN SOME Lactuca sativa L. VARIETIES

Abstract

Relationship between dietary habits and disease risk was demonstrated by numerous epidemiological studies which led to the conclusion that food has a direct impact on health. On the other hand, recent researches established some correlations between the consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables and their health benefits. Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) is an important dietary leafy vegetable mainly consumed fresh or in salad mixes for its good taste, but also because it is perceived as being amongst healthy food since a number of lettuce varieties have been investigated and reported to contain some compounds with antioxidant activities. Lettuce cultivation has been greatly expanded in recent times, so that researchers have been looking for solutions for growing it in confined spaces using artificial LED lighting (light emitting diodes). The objective of this research was to investigate the effect of LED lighting on biochemical characteristics of some lettuce varieties in order to establish the best light treatment during cultivation for enhancing the plants growth, yield and nutritional value. Different combinations of LED wavelengths against conventional light sources were investigated and the researches performed demonstrated that LEDs variably influenced growth characteristics and increased biochemical compounds content in the analyzed lettuce varieties.