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    Virgilio Gavicho Uarrota

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    International Journal of Agricultural Research 6 (3): 218-226, 2011 ISSN 1818-4897 / DOL: 10.8923/ijar.2011.218.228, ©2011 Academie Journals Ine. Maize Landraces (Zea mays L.): A New Prospective Source for Secondary Metabolite Production Virgilio Gavicho Uarrota, Ricardo Brasil Severino and Marcelo Maraschin Plant Science Center, Plant Morphogenesis and Biochemistry Laboratory, Federal University of Santa, Catarina $8040-900, P.O. BOX 476, SC, Florianopolis, Brazil Corresponding Author: Virgilio Gavicho Uarrota, Plant Morphogenesis and Biochemistry Laboratory, Federal University of Santa Catarina 88010-900, SC, Florianopolis, P.O. Box 476, Brazil Tel; +35-48.96128260 Fax +55-48-37215400 ABSTRACT ‘Maize (Zea mays L.) is a staple food for millions of people in the world and its grain is converted into well-aecepted local food produets, including gruels, porridges, pastes and infant weanring food. Maize landrares synthesize a myriad of secondary metabolites and these compounds play important, roles throughout the plant's life eyele as mediators in the interaction of the plant with its environment such as plant-insect, plant-microorganism and plant-plant. interaction, Secondary metabolites determine important. aspects in human food quality. Moreover, several plant secondary metabolites are used for the production of medicines, dyes, insecticides, flavors and fragrances. The extensive genetic and chemical diversity of maize results from a long domestication process carried out sinoe Pre-Colombian civilizations. More than 250 maize varieties are known worldwide and their origin is linked directly or indireetly to the maize domestication and breeding processes performed by ancient civilizations, One of the properties of maize is the spectacular diversity in morphology among its races, which is seemingly paralleled by an extensive allelic variation as detected by molecular methods. On the other hand, despite the fact that modern farming techniques have greatly increased the yield of maize, the genetic breeding programs adopted have led to a greater genetic uniformity and a meaningful loss of diversity. In fact, nowadays very few ofthe world's maize germplasm consist of loral and creole varieties (landranes), showing the genetic vulnerability of that species. In this context, small farmers in some regions of the world still cultivate maize landraces that. are populations with high genetic variability and represent a valuable source of potentially useful traits such as resistance or tolerance to biotic and abiotic stress factors. In this review, a few of the major issues that. should be taken into consideration in approaching maize landraces as source of secondary metabolites of interest for human health and nutrition will be briefly discussed Key words: Secondary metabolites, maize landraees, health benefits, earotenoids, anthoeyanins INTRODUCTION Maize (Zea mays L.) is a widely consumed cereal worldwide and contains carotenoids, phenolics ‘and anthocyanins which are phytochemicals synthesized in the plant by secondary metabolite pathways (Lopez-Martinez. ef al., 2009), These compounds form a large reservoir of natural chemical diversity as they have a variety of unique carbon skeletons and functional group 218

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