TITLE	Biochemistry on postharvest metabolism and deterioration of some tropical tuberous crops
AUTHOR	Ikuzo Uritani School Corp. Aichi Konan Gakuen, Konan, Aichi and Nagoya University (Prof. Emeritus), Nagoya, Aichi, Japan
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ABSTRACT	This paper deals with a biochemical comparison of the postharvest metabolism and deterioration among three tropical tuberous crops: sweet potato, cassava, and taro, focusing on sweet potato. These often suffer from wounding and infection during harvest, transportation, and storage. In response to wounding or infection, the three crops underwent some similar metabolic alterations, such as in the production of stress compounds and changes in proteins, but they also showed some different reactions. In sweet potato and taro, wounding was often healed soon by the formation of a lignin layer succeeding production of polyphenols and changes in proteins. No such layer formed in cassava, which deteriorated at xylems soon after harvest in a phenomenon called vascular streaking, vascular discoloration, or physiological deterioration. When the three crops were attacked by microbes or insects, metabolic changes were induced more vigorously, including the induction of some enzymes, production of stress compounds such as coumarins and phytoalexins, and more enhancement of polyphenol production. However, in cassava, the stress compounds were also produced in the case of wounding.
KEYWORD	Colocasia esculenta; Coumarin; Ipomoea batatas; Manihot esculenta; Microbial deterioration; Physiological deterioration; Phytoalexin; Polyphenol; Storage protein; Tropical tuberous crops;
ARTICLE INFO	Botanical Bulletin of Academia Sinica, Volume 40 Number 3 July 1999, page 177-183, 7 pages
PUBLISHER	Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China