Today’s world is faced with an acute need to provide enough nutritive food for all its people. Increased consciousness about nutrition, food, and health has significantly influenced our modern agriculture and food industry. About 90% of the world’s food (measured in calories) is vegetable products, of which 80% constitutes starchy foods, such as grains and tubers. As pointed out by Salunkhe et al. (1974) in their account of assessment of nutritive value, quality, and stability of cruciferous vegetables during storage and subsequent processing, this is an appropriate time to assess food production, storage, and processing and to determine if vegetable crops with more nutrients can be produced and preserved for a longer time without much loss in quality and wholesomeness.

Effects of Agricultural Practices, Handling, Processing, and Storage on Vegetables

Fruits and vegetables are soft, fleshy, edible plant products and, because of their high moisture content, are relatively perishable in the freshly harvested state. Botanically, the word “fruit” refers to the mature seed-bearing structures of flowering plants; this covers a very wide and heterogeneous group of plant products, including cereals, pulses, oilseeds, spices, and fleshy fruits. The edible fleshy fruits, however, represent a well-defined class on their own and exhibit a wide variety of plant products. They have much in common from a culinary point of view with the soft, edible structures developed from other parts of the plant body, commonly referred to as vegetables. Although botanically the line between fruits and vegetables cannot be clearly drawn, the products have been differentiated based on common verbal usage and the way in which they are consumed. Popularly, the term “fruit” has been restricted in its use to those botanical plant parts that have fragrant, aromatic flavors and are either naturally sweet or normally sweetened with sugar before eating; that is, fruits are essentially consumed as dessert items. The term “vegetable,” in contrast, is applied to all the other soft, edible plant products that are usually eaten with meat, fish, or other savory dish, either fresh or cooked. Both fruits and vegetables are utilized in different ways in different parts of the world—in some instances, even within a given community. For example, banana and plantain are the fruits of two very closely related plant species but are utilized distinctively: Whereas banana is an important dessert fruit, the starchy plantain is usually consumed cooked as a vegetable.

Fruits and Vegetables

Application of 6 different herbicides in potato cultivation resulted in changes of chemical composition of tubers, quality of chips and properties of starch. Sencor, Bladex, Topogard, Afalon and Aresin indicated rather unfavourable effects on chemical composition of the tubers. On one hand they increased the average weight of the tubers, on the other hand they decreased the dry matter (triazines) and starch content (Afalon). They increased the amount of reducing and total sugars (urea) and increased the content of amide nitrogen (triazines and Afalon) and amino acid nitrogen (Bladex). Sencor and Afalon resulted in darker colour of the chips. Afalon, Aresin and Chwastox increased the part of small granules or decreased the amount of large granules in the starch. Afalon and Bladex resulted in changes of phosphorus content, and Chwastox changed the amount of amylose in starch.



Die Wirkung von Herbiziden auf die chemische Zusammensetzung von Kartoffelknollen und auf die Qualitat der daraus hergestellten Chips und Starke. Die Anwendung von 6 verschiedenen Herbiziden im Kartoffelbau bewirkte Veranderungen der chemischen Zusammensetzung der Knollen, der Chipsqualitat und der Starkeeigenschaften. Sencor, Bladex, Topograd, Afalon und Aresin zeigten ziemlich ungunstige Wirkungen auf die Zusammensetzung der Knollen. Einerseits erhohten sie das Durchschnittsgewicht der Knollen, andererseits verringerten sie den Trockensubstanz- (Triazine) und den Starkegehalt (Afalon). Sie erhohten die Mengen an reduzierenden und Gesamtzuckern (Harnstoff) sowie den Gehalt an Amidstickstoff (Triazine und Afalon) und Aminosaurestickstoff (Bladex). Sencor und Afalon fuhrten zu dunkleren Chipsfarben. Afalon und Chwastox erhohten den Anteil an kleinen und verringerten die Menge an grosen Kornern in der Starke. Afalon und Bladex fuhrten zu Veranderungen des Phosphorgehaltes, und Chwastox veranderte die Amylosemenge in der Starke.

Effect of Herbicides on Chemical Composition of Potato Tubers and Quality of the Subsequent Chips and Starch

An increased supply of food is urgently needed to provide adequate nutrients to the increasing world population. Plant foods are basic in the nutrition of man. Increasing the productivity and efficiency of plant foods is, therefore, essential. Application of low concentrations of certain chemicals have helped in making a breakthrough in this direction. Certain chemicals are known to stimulate plant growth and yield. Many growth regulators also increase the protein content of plants. Treatment with pesticides and herbicides may also change the nutritive quality. These effects have been explored in detail for specific food crops and individual chemicals and the findings are presented here. It should be noted, however, that most of these findings are of an experimental nature and their practical application will depend upon the discovery of more powerful chemicals and further research into less expensive ways to use them with fewer side effects.

Subtoxic effects of certain chemicals on food crops.

New cultural prac tices and varieties have played a maj or role in more efficient crop production . Selection for disease resistance and yielding ability of necessity have been emphas ized. entil recen t hybridizations, sugarbeet varieties generally had a broad genetic base and phenotypically were exceedingly hetero­ genous. T he range in phenotypic characters and performance of individual plants or the variety produced a large standard deviation from the m ean . Consequently, the average performance of the variety was su boptimal as com pared with a selection within the variety. T he selection would eliminate some of the plants with the least desirable characteristics .

Effect of leaf area and nitrogen on root weight and sucrose of sugar-beets.

This review paper presents results with and potential for the use of certain chemicals to stimulate growth of plants and increase yield, to increase nutritional composition, and to increase nutrient retention and quality after harvest and during storage of economic plants and their products.

The use of certain chemicals to increase nutritional value and to extend quality in economic plants

The sugarbeet is an herbaceous dicotyledon. The annual world production of sugarbeet exceeds 200 million tons. It supplies 40% of the world's sugar. The sugarbeet, a biennial, normally completes its vegetative cycle in 2 years. During the first year it develops a large succulent root, in which reserve food sugar is stored. During the second year it produces flowers and seeds. Favorable environmental conditions and proper agronomic practices (such as temperatures, climate, day length, fertilization, disease control, control of late growth) are essential for producing high sugar and less impure sugarbeet. Proper nitrogen fertilization increases the yield, but decreases the sugar percentage and juice purity of sugarbeet. Nitrate is the principle source of nitrogen used by sugarbeets. Nitrate uptake and metabolism require energy which is derived at the expense of sugar accumulation. Glutamine in sugarbeet is synthesized mainly in the roots and is transported to the leaves. Estimation and application of the op...

M. T. Wu

Papers

The use of certain chemicals to increase nutritional value and to extend quality in economic plants

Effects of environmental factors and agronomic and storage practices on quality of sugarbeet