S08 - Session O3 - Lighting for high value pharmaceutical and nutraceutical crops in vertical farms

Authors: Akvile Virsile *, Giedre Samuoliene, Viktorija Vastakaite-Kairiene, Ausra Brazaityte, Jurga Miliauskiene, Kristina Lauzike, Ruta Sutuliene

Controlled environment agriculture (CEA) currently can offer consumers and supply chain stakeholders resilient, sustainable, local, value-added vegetable products. The possibility to handle cultivation environment parameters in CEA enables crop R&D advancement through their specific impacts on plant growth, development, and metabolism. However, despite the high technological CEA level, assortment of cultivated vegetable species is relatively narrow and based on highly demanded species, such as lettuce, basil, spinach, few Brassicacea sp., etc. Due to their high photosynthetic productivity and short cultivation period leafy greens suggests reasonable incomes for CEA. However, currently the volume of fresh vegetable consumption in EU is barely growing, while interest of modern people in their own well-being is enhancing the demand for diversified vegetables , herbs and medicinal plants. In this study we seek to overiview the growth and metabolite contents of the portfolio of nutraceutical and pharmaceutical crops, such as Perilla frutescens , Achillea millefolium, Kalanchoe pi nnata, Amaranth sp., Artemisia dranunculus , Catharanthus roseus etc., cultivated in CEA under tailored light emitting diode lighting and to explore species specific p lant physiological responses.