With potatoes

The biological activity and heat in a compost pile is so great that it can break down many plant diseases. Even so, it is probably wise not to add plants infected with very persistent diseases of vegetables such as clubroot and white rot. Potato and tomato foliage infected with potato blight can be safely composted. 

With the development of enzymatic polymerization in solution, also first accounts for SIP appeared. Loos et al. [350] reported on enzymatic surface polymerization of glucose-l-phosphate with potato phosphorylase as the catalyst resulting in oligo- or poly-(a,l- 4)-D-glucopyranose. As initiator sites, immobilized malto-heptaose was used. Enzymatic grafting of hexyloxyphenol onto chitosan is reported by Payne and coworkers [351]. 

Tablets prepared with dicalcium phosphate dihydrate increased in crushing strength due to increasing temperatures (A,sir(s) ). The relative humidity had a negative effect on the SIR of crushing strength of the tablets prepared with dicalcium phosphate dihydrate, except for the tablets prepared with potato starch. Also a significant interaction between the temperature and relative humidity effect was seen (A3,sir(S) 0), indicating that the effect of the relative humidity on the SIR of crushing strength of dicalcium phosphate dihydrate tablets depended on the level of temperature and vice versa.

Hermundstad, S. A., Reloquin, S. J. (1985a). Germplasm enhancement with potato haploids. The Journal of Heredity, 76, 463 67. 

Bender, H., Siebert, R., Stadler-Szoke, A. (1982). Can cyclodextrin glycosyltransferase be useful for the investigation of the fine structure ofamylopectins Characterisation of highly branched clusters isolated from digests with potato and maize starches. Carbohydr. Res., 110,245-259. 

The value of potatoes in nutritional management may depend on other food components which contribute to the composition of the form of potato consumed. For instance, Ified potatoes in the form of potato crisps (Table 13.2) contain a high proportion of fat, and very little water, so on an equal weight basis they are about six times more energy-dense than potatoes alone. However, that has little to do with potatoes, but is more a result of the way they are treated. 

Figure 17.2 Dr. Ted Tibbitts of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wl, USA, working with potato plants in a growth chamber. Ted Tibbitts was the principal investigator for NASA-sponsored studies with potatoes from 1982 through 1994, and work from his laboratory has provided baseline information on controlled environment production techniques bioregenerative life support systems in space.

Figure 17.5 A typical experiment with potatoes conducted at the University of Wisconsin Biotron in the 1980s and 1990s. Plants were propagated with in vitro grown nodal cuttings and planted into a peat-vermiculite (50 50) and watered to excess with a nutrient solution four times daily. The watering tubes for the pots are shown hanging from an overhead delivery line (Wheeler and Tibbitts, 1987).

Figure 17.8 For most of the NASA-sponsored studies with potatoes, increased light (PAR) resulted in increased biomass. The relative partitioning of biomass among plant parts is shown fora range of PAR from studies by Wheeler and Tibbitts (1997).

Figure 17.11 Neil Yorio at NASA s Kennedy Space Center taking leaf porometer measurements with potatoes to monitor stomatal conductance and transpiration rates. When measurements were taken at 400 ppm CO2, a mask was worn to removed exhaled breath from the chamber to avoid elevating the CO2 concentration.

Findings from controlled environment studies for NASA were consistent with many previous physiological studies with potatoes, but also revealed some interesting phenomena, including... 

Tibbitts, T. W., Croxdale, J. C., Brown, C. S., Wheeler, R. M., Goins, G. D. (1999). Ground-based studies and space experiment with potato leaf explants. Life Support Biosphere Set, 6, 97-106. 

Potatoes are among the most efficient sources of energy and other nutrients including vitamins and minerals. With potatoes having such great importance, it is perhaps surprising that very few books about them have been written. 

Musty or potato-like flavor and aroma have been observed as a defect in milk (Hammer and Babel 1957) and Gruyere de Comte cheese (Dumont et al. 1975). This off-flavor results from the production of nitrogenous cyclic compounds by Pseudomonas taetrolens and P. perolens (Morgan 1976). Musty-flavored compounds produced by these organisms include 2,5-dimethylpyrazine and 2-methoxy-3-isopropyl-pyrazine. The Gruyere de Comte with potato off-flavor contained 3-methoxy-2-propyl pyridine, as well as alkyl pyrazine compounds (Dumont et al. 1975). Murray and Whitfield (1975) postulated that alkyl pyrazines are formed in vegetables by condensation of amino acids such as valine, isoleucine, and leucine with a 2-carbon compound. Details of the synthetic mechanism in pseudomonads are unknown. 

PN after enzy- PNP with potato ODS2 (300 X Columns cleaned adjust the pH LoD = 0.2-0.4 ng/L. 

These are favorable results for the application of this surfactin as an agent of enhanced oil recovery since high salt concentration, high temperature, and high pH describe the conditions of many oil reservoirs. This surfactin was also produced cheaply with potato process effluents, another attractive feature. Previous experiments with surfactin produced in minimal salts medium containing potato starch have shown similar results. However, note that changes in the process from which the feedstock is derived could have an impact on these results. 

The preceding discussion is somewhat related to Ernst Ruch s extraordinarily fruitful idea to classify chiral objects in two classes shoes and potatoes (Fig. 3.2) If asked to put our left shoes into one box and our right shoes into a second box we could accomplish the task without mental difficulty, in spite of the fact that the right shoes belonging to different people may be quite different in color, shape, and size, and although, probably, there is not a single pair of shoes which are precise mirror images of each other. If asked to solve the same problem with potatoes, we must capitulate. Of course, it is possible that by chance we find an antipodal pair. It is then clear that we must separate them, but for other potatoes different in shape, we have to make new arbitrary decisions each time. Any classification would be very artificial [1-3]. 

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