Ipomea batatas L. (Sweet potato )

Crop Type: Garden Crop

Breeding system: Predominantly allogamous

Sweetpotato, Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam. (Convolvulaceae), is the sixth most important food crop worldwide, following rice, wheat, potatoes, maize, and cassava (International Potato Center, 2018). In fact, it plays a critical role in terms of food security, especially in many developing countries. China is the largest producer accounting circa 70% of the world’s production of sweet potato, followed by the Sub-Saharan African countries (Wadl et al. 2018 and refs therein). Recently an increased interest on this crop favoured consumption in many developed countries such as United States where the increased public awareness of the health benefits of this crop and the production of a wide array of value-added products raised its production. Sweet potatoes are a great source of carbohydrates and also major source of provitamins A, vitamin C, B1, B2 (riboflavin), B3 (niacin), B6, E, biotin, and pantothenic acid, as well as dietary fiber, potassium, copper, manganese, and iron; in addition, they are low in fat and cholesterol (Hill et al., 1992; Wang et al., 2016).

References

• International Potato Center (2018). Sweetpotato Facts and Figures. Available at: https://cipotato.org/crops/sweetpotato/sweetpotato-facts-and-figures/ [accessed December 14, 2019].
• Hill, W. A., Mortley, D. G., MacKowiak, C. L., Loretan, P. A., Tibbitts, T. W., Wheeler, R. M., et al. (1992). Growing root and tuber crops hydroponically. Adv. Space Res. 12, 125–131. doi: 10.1016/0273-1177(92)90018-S
• Wadl PA, Olukolu BA, Branham SE, et al (2018) Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of the USDA Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas) Germplasm Collections Using GBSpoly. Front Plant Sci 9:1166. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2018.01166
• Wang, S., Nie, S., and Zhu, F. (2016). Chemical constituents and health effects of sweet potato. Food Res. Int. 89, 90–116. doi: 10.1016/j.foodres.2016.08.032

Go back Go to the search