A Multidisciplinary Approach to Preserve and Value the Chestnut Heritage

In Italy the spread of chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) has favored the evolution of a rich varietal heritage in different pedoclimatic areas. Conservation of this wide germplasm is very important to save valuable genotypes, because they may retain special adaptative and technological traits and so meet the demands of the market that nowadays requires, more and more, typical products of high quality. The preservation and valorization of this heritage can be achieved through a multidisciplinary approach. Genetic, morphologic, chemical and sensory analyses allow to define the properties and the characteristics of each chestnut cultivar and can be helpful in choosing the most proper uses of the nuts. In this work, we describe our experience on chestnut characterization aimed to select plant material to be exploited in the different growing areas and show how a multidisciplinary approach greatly improves the efficacy of the characterization and the reliability of the evaluation of the germplasm. The final aim is to provide growers with selected plant material able to yield nuts suitable for the fresh market or for processing and offer to consumers high quality products from vocated areas.