Statistical Analysis of Mineral Concentration for the Geographic Identification of Garlic Samples from Sicily (Italy), Tunisia and Spain

Rossella Vadalà; Antonio F Mottese; Giuseppe D Bua; Andrea Salvo; Domenico Mallamace; Carmelo Corsaro; Sebastiano Vasi; Salvatore V Giofrè; Maria Alfa; Nicola Cicero; Giacomo Dugo

doi:10.3390/foods5010020

Statistical Analysis of Mineral Concentration for the Geographic Identification of Garlic Samples from Sicily (Italy), Tunisia and Spain

Foods. 2016 Mar 15;5(1):20. doi: 10.3390/foods5010020.

Authors

Rossella Vadalà¹, Antonio F Mottese², Giuseppe D Bua³, Andrea Salvo⁴, Domenico Mallamace⁵, Carmelo Corsaro^{6

7}, Sebastiano Vasi⁸, Salvatore V Giofrè⁹, Maria Alfa¹⁰, Nicola Cicero^{11

12}, Giacomo Dugo^{13

14}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biomedical and Dental Sciences and Morphofunctional Imaging, University of Messina, V.le F. Stagno d'Alcontres 31, Messina 98166, Italy. rvadala@unime.it.
² Department of Biomedical and Dental Sciences and Morphofunctional Imaging, University of Messina, V.le F. Stagno d'Alcontres 31, Messina 98166, Italy. amottese@unime.it.
³ Department of Biomedical and Dental Sciences and Morphofunctional Imaging, University of Messina, V.le F. Stagno d'Alcontres 31, Messina 98166, Italy. gbua@unime.it.
⁴ Department of Biomedical and Dental Sciences and Morphofunctional Imaging, University of Messina, V.le F. Stagno d'Alcontres 31, Messina 98166, Italy. asalvo@unime.it.
⁵ Department of Biomedical and Dental Sciences and Morphofunctional Imaging, University of Messina, V.le F. Stagno d'Alcontres 31, Messina 98166, Italy. mallamaced@unime.it.
⁶ IPCF- CNR of Messina, Viale F. Stagno d'Alcontres 37, Messina 98158, Italy. ccorsaro@unime.it.
⁷ MIFT Department Physics Section, University of Messina, Viale F. S. d'Alcontres 31, Messina 98166, Italy. ccorsaro@unime.it.
⁸ MIFT Department Physics Section, University of Messina, Viale F. S. d'Alcontres 31, Messina 98166, Italy. vasis@unime.it.
⁹ Department of Chemical Sciences, Biological, Pharmaceutical and Environmental, University of Messina, Via SS. Annunziata, Messina 98168, Italy. sgiofre@unime.it.
¹⁰ Department of Biomedical and Dental Sciences and Morphofunctional Imaging, University of Messina, V.le F. Stagno d'Alcontres 31, Messina 98166, Italy. malfa@unime.it.
¹¹ Department of Biomedical and Dental Sciences and Morphofunctional Imaging, University of Messina, V.le F. Stagno d'Alcontres 31, Messina 98166, Italy. ncicero@unime.it.
¹² Science4life srl, Academic Spin-off, Università di Messina, Viale F. Stagno d'Alcontres 31, Messina 98166, Italy. ncicero@unime.it.
¹³ Department of Biomedical and Dental Sciences and Morphofunctional Imaging, University of Messina, V.le F. Stagno d'Alcontres 31, Messina 98166, Italy. dugog@unime.it.
¹⁴ Science4life srl, Academic Spin-off, Università di Messina, Viale F. Stagno d'Alcontres 31, Messina 98166, Italy. dugog@unime.it.

Abstract

We performed a statistical analysis of the concentration of mineral elements, by means of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), in different varieties of garlic from Spain, Tunisia, and Italy. Nubia Red Garlic (Sicily) is one of the most known Italian varieties that belongs to traditional Italian food products (P.A.T.) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry. The obtained results suggest that the concentrations of the considered elements may serve as geographical indicators for the discrimination of the origin of the different samples. In particular, we found a relatively high content of Selenium in the garlic variety known as Nubia red garlic, and, indeed, it could be used as an anticarcinogenic agent.

Keywords: ICP-MS; Nubia Red Garlic; PCA; anticarcinogenesis; geographic origin; multi-element profile.