Agronomic and phytochemical evaluation of lavandin and lavender cultivars cultivated in the Tyrrhenian area of Tuscany (Italy)

•Lavender and lavandin are successfully and organically grown in Tuscany.•Good and stable inflorescence yields are achieved in a 2-year field trial.•Essential Oils were characterized by GC-MS.•Essential Oil composition varies among species/cultivars, except for oxygenated monoterpenes.•Essential Oil antioxidant activity is strongly affected by growing season.

This study aimed to evaluate the possibility to organically cultivate lavender (Lavandula angustifolia Miller) and lavandin (Lavandula hybrida Reverchon), under the pedo-climatic conditions of central Italy. So, the growth and productive parameters as well as the essential oil content and composition of one lavender cultivar (Mailette) and three lavandin cultivars (Sumiens, Super A and Grosso) were assessed through 2-year field experiment (2014 and 2015 growing season). The results showed that the cold sensitivity of both lavender and lavandin plants decreased with ageing. Along the two years of cultivation, stem and inflorescences yields remained stable, and the lavandin cultivar Super A showed always the higher yields in comparison with the other varieties. A slight increase of essential oil (EO) yield was observed for the three cultivars of lavandin during the second year of experiment (2015), while the EO yield of lavender showed a slight decrease. The composition of these essential oils highlighted an important variation which affected all the classes of compounds, except for oxygenated monoterpenes (OM). The antioxidant capacity of EOs was also evaluated and the obtained results pointed out as the growing season was an important factor in influencing the antioxidant capacity of EOs of these aromatic plants.