Comparative Characterization of Peanuts Grown by Aquatic Floating Cultivation and Field Cultivation for Seed and Resveratrol Production

Peanut pods (Tainan 12, a Spanish cultivar, Arachis hypogaea L.) have been obtained from peanuts grown in a newly developed aquatic floating cultivation system without artificial aeration or periodic renewal of the solution. The system provided a convenient status for examination of root and pod development. Compared to field-grown peanuts of the same cultivar, the aquatic-cultivated peanut pods and seeds were smaller, whereas seed/pod weight ratios, crude fat and protein contents, and SDS-PAGE protein patterns varied within similar ranges. During cultivation, the highest detected temperature of the aquatic solution was higher than the field-soil temperature. After gas chromatographic analysis of the fatty acid compositions, the oleic acid/linoleic acid ratio of the aquatic-cultivated seeds was higher than that of field-cultivated ones. When the peanut roots were collected, cleaned, dried, weighed, pulverized, and subjected to resveratrol analysis, dry root weights were 4.2 ± 0.1 and 2.2 ± 1.1 g/plant and resveratrol contents were 0.074 ± 0.009 and 0.114 ± 0.212 mg/g for the aquatic- and field-cultivated peanut roots, respectively. This indicates that the aquatic-cultivated peanut roots could be a potent and consistent source of resveratrol. Keywords: Arachis hypogaea L.; aquatic floating cultivation; peanut roots; resveratrol; SDS-PAGE; fatty acid composition