Lettuce is one of the most widely consumed vegetables in the world and can provide various health benefits to consumers. The type of production system, such as high tunnel, green roof or open field environments, can influence the nutritional composition of lettuce. To determine the extent of phytonutrient content change, ‘Skyphos’ lettuce was grown in these various production environments to compare phytonutrient content at harvest. The production experiment was conducted at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale and set up with three treatment locations and four replications. Two production systems used organic fertility practices (high tunnel and green roof), while the field production system used conventional fertilizers. At horticultural maturity (40 days after germination), the lower and mid leaves were harvested to determine phytonutrient content. Lettuce samples were frozen and shipped to Auburn University where samples were assayed for total chlorophyll, carotenoids, anthocyanins, flavonoids, phenolics and antioxidant activity via UV VIS spectrophotometry. Carotenoids of violaxanthin, neoxanthin, lutein and b-carotene were quantitated by UPLC/MS. The interaction of production system*leaf sampling location differed (P < 0.05) in total anthocyanins, total carotenoids and total chlorophyll. Total anthocyanins were highest in the lower leaves of ‘Skyphos’ lettuce cultivated on the green roof at 3.57 mg/L. In comparison, total carotenoids, total chlorophyll and chlorophyll a were highest in the lower leaves of lettuce cultivated in the high tunnel at 1316.48, 6093.45 and 4401. 97 mg/g, respectively. Cultivating lettuce in the high tunnel provided the highest Chlorophyll b content (1638.37 mg/g) compared to the field (888.80 mg/g) or green roof (893.43 mg/g). The phytonutrient content of lettuce can be influenced by location, temperature, soil type, humidity and UV radiation. The green roof increased total anthocyanin content which may be due to the higher temperatures and irradiation levels on compared to the field or high tunnel. Total Chlorophyll and carotenoid content was increased in the high tunnel likely due to increases of UV-A and UV-B exposure from the poly film leading to an increase in photosystem response. This experiment suggests the specific phytonutrient content (e.g., anthocyanin or carotenoids) in a red lettuce like ‘Skyphos’ differs based on production system and can be used in market development to increase consumer consumption by highlighting the specific phytonutrients highest in each production system.
