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• Bergamot oil is widely used in cosmetics, aromatherapy, and as a flavoring in food. • More than 95 % of the bergamot production is carried out in Southern Italy. • We demonstrate that the bergamot oil quality directly correlates with the climatic conditions. • Without a carefully planned irrigation the bergamot industry will experience a crisis. Global warming has the potential to impact on the olfactory features of bergamot essential oil, which is a key component of perfumes, ointments and juices. The present study aimed at evaluating the hypothesis of a possible correlation between the chemical compositional characteristics of bergamot essential oil and climatic conditions over a twenty-year period (1999–2019) in Calabria. This Southern Italy region is responsible for ∼95 % of the worldwide production of bergamot oil. Unlike the vast majority of studies on stress tolerance that focus on a single stress condition, this study faced the challenge to evaluate the complex effects of a combination of different abiotic stress causes. It was found that the impoverishment of the olfactory qualities of bergamot essential oil reported for specific years closely correlate with the combination of heat waves and droughts. Chemically, the effect was attributed to dramatic compositional changes and to the massive accumulation of monoterpenes, in particular d -Limonene, in the fruit peel. The data thus predict that, without a carefully planned increase of irrigation, the world bergamot industry may soon be jeopardized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Neapolitan limmo" is an ancient and rare sweet Mediterranean lime, now almost extinct but used until a few decades ago for the production of a fragrant liqueur called the "four citrus fruits". The objective of this work was to compare, through the use of chemical (flavonoids, volatile organic compounds, and chiral compounds) and molecular (DNA fingerprint based on RAPD-PCR) markers, the residual population of Neapolitan limmo with other populations of sweet limes, identified in Calabria and known as "lemoncetta Locrese". We report for the first time specific botanical characteristics of the two fruits and unequivocally show that the ancient sweet Mediterranean limes Neapolitan limmo and lemoncetta Locrese are synonyms of the same Citrus species. Owing to the biodiversity conserved in their places of origin, it will now be possible to recover, enhance and implement the use of this ancient sweet lime for agro-industrial purposes.