Chenopodium quinoa is being considered as a “new” crop for Contolled Ecological Life Support Systems(CELSS) due to the unique protein composition and high mineral values of the seeds and leaves. Quinoa is known to have very high protein levels (12-185 reported from field trials), with desirable amino acid proportions, and mineral concentrations suitable for a balanced human diet. Contolled environment, hydroponic culture has increased the nutritional value and has the potential of increasing the yield. Protein and mineral values have increased substantially and will be discussed in more depth. The high concentration of protein, unique amino acid profile, high mineral values, versatility in preparation and the potential for increased yields make quinoa a useful crop for CELSS and long-term space missions
Sesquiterpene carboxylic acids (SCA) are synthesized by leaf trichomes of a wild tomato species Lycopersicon hirsutum accession LA 1777 and confer resistance to the tomato pests Helicoverpa zea (Boddie) and Spodoptera exigua (Hubner). Larvae of both species exhibited a reduction in survival and growth rate with altered feeding behavior when exposed to SCA in choice and no-choice insect bioassays. Larvae of both species were reared on artificial insect diets with SCA added at 0, 10 and 60 mg SCA per g of diet. All larvae perished in the 60 mg·g–1 treatment which is comparable to the levels of SCA found on LA 1777. H. zea and S. exigua showed about 35% and 60% reduction in survival to adult and 38% to 22% increase in life cycle duration, respectively, in the 10 mg·g–1 treatment relative to the control. Similar reductions in growth rate and survival were observed when larvae were reared on leaves coated with SCA. Choice bioassays with control (0 mg SCA/g leaf) and 60 mg SCA/g treated leaf tissue demonstrated 2.3-fold increase in larval avoidance and 50% reduction in feeding on treated leaves. Our results suggest that breeding for SCA synthesis in tomato would produce lines with increased resistance to the tomato pests H. zea and S. exigua. Backcross breeding procedures using LA 1777 have initiated the introgression of the SCA genes into cultivated tomato germplasm. Studies of inheritance of genes coding for SCA synthesis are underway to reveal allelic interactions and facilitate there introgression into the cultivated tomato germplasm.
Research Center, for kindly providing `Banpeiyu' pummelo and `Ruby Red' grapefruit. This research was supported by Diet and Cancer Prevention: Exploring Research Technology, Miyazaki Prefecture Collaboration of Regional Entities for the Advancement of
manuscript. The authors thank Mr. Yasuhiro Okuno for kindly providing the experimental materials. This research was supported by Diet and Cancer Prevention: Exploring Research Technology, Miyazaki Prefecture Collaboration of Regional Entities for the
Plants are the foundation for a significant part of human medicine and for many of the most widely used drugs designed to prevent, treat, and cure disease. Folkloric information concerning traditional remedies for disease has had inestimable value in establishing familial and cultural linkages. During the 20th century, modern medical science in the U.S. and other developed countries ushered in a new era focused on synthetic medicines. Even though many of these compounds were based on natural compounds found in plants, the drive towards synthetic pharmaceuticals created a knowledge gap concerning the health functionality of plants, crops, and food. Paralleling this development, biochemists and nutritional scientists pioneered the discovery of vitamins during the early decades of the 20th century. This research paved the way for dietary guidelines based on empirical data collected from animal feeding trials and set the stage for the current emphasis on phytonutrients. Three primary stages characterize the use of fruits and vegetable in human health. The first stage concerns the observation that many fruit and vegetable crops were originally domesticated for their medicinal properties. Making their way into the diet for this purpose, fruit and vegetable crops remained on the fringe from a culinary point of view. The second stage began when the role of vitamins became more widely understood, and fruit and vegetable plants were quickly recognized as a rich source of certain vitamins, minerals, and fiber. At this point, they became more than just an afterthought in the diet of most U.S. citizens. Cartoon icons such as Popeye made the case for the health functionality of leafy greens, while parents schooled their children on the virtues of carrots (Daucus carota), broccoli (Brassica oleracea), and green beans (Phaseolus vulgaris). This renaissance resulted in large increases in fresh fruit and vegetable consumption across the country, a trend that continues to this day. The third phase can be characterized by the recognition that fruit and vegetable crops contain compounds that have the potential to influence health beyond nutritional value. These so-called functional foods figure prominently in the dietary recommendations developed during the last decades of the 20th century. In recent years, surveys suggest nearly two-thirds of grocery shoppers purchase food specifically to reduce the risk of, or manage a specific health condition. Evidence abounds that consumers, including Baby Boomers, choose foods for specific health benefits, such as the antioxidant potential of vegetables, suggesting high levels of nutritional literacy. Clinical and in vitro data have, to some degree, supported the claims that certain foods have the potential to deter disease, however much research remains to be conducted in order to definitively answer specific dietary-based questions about food and health.
Abstract
Long before the days of modern plant breeding, farmers and gardeners had selected improved forms of wild plant species and had established, for many crops, productive cultivars giving goodquality produce. For example, most of the fruits and vegetables now grown in England, including the introduced species, have been established items of diet for at least several centuries. Many of the cultivars of fruits and vegetables that are grown today have changed little from the forms that were cultivated a hundred or more years ago. Where there have been substantial changes, often these have been made to adapt cultivars to make them suitable for new agronomic practices; to improve the uniformity of size, shape, color, and time of maturity; and to increase resistance to pests and diseases. Some of these improvements have increased marketable yields and economic returns to the grower, but there is little evidence that there have been genetic increases in total biological productivity. However, substantial increases in biological yields have been achieved by improved cultural practices, including the use of herbicides and crop protection chemicals and of more fertilizer, although in recent years there has been an increasingly vociferous environmental lobby to reduce the use of agrochemicals.
Abstract
It is a pleasure to be introducing this symposium to provide an appreciation of the real interest that NASA has in using plant systems for life support in space. The symposium is directed toward providing details on what is planned, and what is actually underway, in this effort. It is a program that has been titled CELSS, Controlled Ecological Life Support System, and involves a tremendous breadth of horticultural areas—areas that can require the expertise of nearly everyone in horticulture, as suggested in Fig. 1. The project must start with plant propagation, probably tissue culture propagation, and involve all aspects of environmental optimization of growth, breeding of adapted cultivars, nutrient, possibly nutrient film, feeding techniques (NFT) and automated nutrient recycling, contaminant control in the atmosphere, pathogen control in the nutrient solution, precise growth modeling for regulation of the system, maximization of harvest index to reduce inedible portions, efficient food processing, balanced diets, and complete recycling of all wastes. The expertise of all types of horticulturists is needeed if this project of NASA is to be successful.
Demand for fresh fruits and vegetables is increasing worldwide in response to health concerns, wealth, and the desire for variety in the diet. However, consumption of produce is contingent on the ability of the industry to provide high quality fresh produce and on its convenience, as well as on consumer education and economics. Texture measurement is accepted by horticultural industries as a critical indicator of quality of fruits and vegetables. The fresh produce industry and, indirectly, consumers need methods for measuring produce texture to ensure the quality within a grade, and scientists need measurements to quantify the results of their treatments, whether treatments are genetic, chemical, or physical. The variety of attributes required to fully describe textural properties can only be fully measured by sensory evaluation by a panel of trained assessors. However, instrumental measurements are preferred over sensory evaluations for both commercial and research applications because instruments are more convenient, less expensive, and tend to provide consistent values when used by different people. Thus, instrumental measurements need to be developed that predict sensory evaluations of texture. Such instrumental measurements can then provide a common language among researchers, producers, packers, regulatory agencies, and customers. We compare sensory evaluations of specific critical textural attributes to instrumental force/deformation measurements on a wide variety of fruits and vegetables with relatively uniform bulk tissues, such as apples, bananas, carrots, jicama, melons, pears, potatoes, rutabagas, and several others.
Carotenoids (provitamin A) and tocopherols (vitamin E) are powerful antioxidants in plants and in the human diet. Carrot (Daucus carota) has been selected for increased levels of carotenoids, contributing to its orange color and reported health benefits. Selection for increased tocopherol has shown success in seed oils, but little progress has been made in the edible portions of most vegetable crops. HPLC measurement following a simultaneous heptane extraction of both compounds has shown a significant (P ≤ 0.001) positive correlation of α-tocopherol with α-carotene (r = 0.65) and β-carotene (r = 0.52). To increase both the tocopherols and carotenoids in plants, 3 populations have been established from select open-pollinated varieties grown in 2002. These populations consist of half-sib families with these differing selection schemes: based strictly on increased α-tocopherol levels; an index to increase α-carotene, β-carotene and α-tocopherol; and a random population in which no selection is occurring. After one cycle of selection, populations were grown on muck soil during the summer of 2003. Compared with the random population, an increase of 24.68% in α-tocopherol concentration was recorded for the population selected strictly on α-tocopherol while increases of 8.47% in α-tocopherol, 9.31% in α-carotene and 7.31% in β-carotene were recorded for the population with index selection. The continuation of these carrot populations shows promise to produce carrot germplasm with improved human nutritive value.
Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) is an essential salad crop in the American diet. Nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) are required for successful lettuce production and can influence lettuce quality. The objective of the study was to evaluate changes in nutritional composition of romaine (`Green Tower') and iceberg (`Sharp Shooter') lettuce in responses to N, P and K fertilization during fall production in Salinas, Calif. Sixteen treatment combinations of fertilizer were selected to provide a range of treatments. N was applied at 0, 112, 225, and 338 kg·ha-1 as ammonium nitrate; P was applied at 0, 112, and 225 kg/ha as super phosphate; and K was applied at 0 and 112 kg·ha-1 as muriate of potash. Nutritional content of fresh tissue of two types of lettuce was analyzed using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Among the parameters analyzed were lutein, beta-carotene, chlorophyll a, and chlorophyll b. Yield was increased with increasing N fertilizer level, but was not affected by P or K application rates. The best post harvest quality, however, was at moderate P application rate. Increasing the N and P rates gradually increased glucose content in lettuce but decreased the shelf life. Significant differences between the two types of lettuce were found in chlorophyll, lutein and beta-carotene content. No significant correlations were found between soil fertilizer application levels and nutritional content of lettuce. However, the ratio of chlorophyll a and b were greater with the increase of fertilizer rate. Nutritional composition including vitamin C will be presented.