A review of progress in current research on Chinese flowering cabbage (Brassica campestris L. ssp. chinensis var. utilis Tsen et Lee)

Chinese flowering cabbage (Brassica campestris L. ssp. chinensis var. utilis Tsen et Lee) is an important leafy vegetable species, which originates from Guangdong province in southern China. There is a variety called purple Chinese flowering cabbage (Brassica campestris L. ssp. chinensis L. Makino var. purpurea Bailay), which is popular in the Yangtze River basin, e.g. in Wuhan and Sichuan provinces. This manuscript is a review of recent studies on the nutritional value, breeding methods and factors affecting the yield of Chinese flowering cabbage. This vegetable is rich in glucosinolates, polyphenols, amino acids, fatty acids, soluble sugar and vitamin C. It also exhibits some antioxidative activity, e.g. the TEAC value was 16.93 μmol Trolox g-1 and the FRAP value was 12.01 µmol Fe(II) g-1 in total. Controlling the Cd level in Chinese flowering cabbage is important due to the fact that it can easily accumulate Cd in its edible leaves and flowering stems. To reduce the effect given by Cd, foliar spray with trace elements had been studied. Moreover, nitrogen fertilizer, biofertilizer and several cultivation methods have been implemented to improve the yielding and nutritional value of Chinese flowering cabbage. Depending on the conditions, fertilisation increased the yield from 19.1% to 168%, whereas the fresh weight of a single plant varied from 0.835 kg to 1.683 kg and the average yielding in the field ranged from 7.857 t ha-1 to 19.1 t ha-1. In the last part of this paper, we reviewed the different breeding methods that have been used to develop new varieties of Chinese flowering cabbage meeting specific requirements, such as selecting a hybrid with kale to enrich the genotype, increase the resistance or discover a specific bolting gene. In brief, Chinese flowering cabbage has the potential for future research and commercial market.