Genetical And Nutritional Influences On The Spear Quality Of White Asparagus Asparagus Officinalis L

The burgeoning demand on the world food supply, coupled with concern over the use of chemical fertilizers, has led to an accelerated interest in the practice of precision agriculture. This practice involves the careful control and monitoring of plant nutrition to maximize the rate of growth and yield of crops, as well as their nutritional value.

Nitrogen is an essential element for plant growth. During the green revolution nitrogenfertilisation was responsible for spectacular yield increases. At present yield is balanced with commitments towards the environment and sustainable agriculture. For agro-biotechnology comprehensive knowledge of plant functioning is needed. Yield improvement and accumulation of essential nitrogen compounds is relying on selection and gene technologies. Research on the uptake, acquisition and assimilation of nitrogen, as well as the synthesis and storage of reserve and defence N-compounds, therefore, is essential. The third volume in the Plant Ecophysiology series integrates functional and molecular physiology with ecophysiological and sustainable agricultural approaches to get a better understanding of the regulation and the impact of environmental and stress signals on nitrogen acquisition and assimilation. The book is of interest for advanced students and junior researchers and supplies comprehensive information for scientists working in the field of nitrogen metabolism and readers interested in sustainable development.

From beef to baked goods, fish to flour, antioxidants are added to preserve the shelf life of foods and ensure consumer acceptability. These production-added components may also contribute to the overall availability of essential nutrients for intake as well as the prevention of the development of unwelcome product characteristics such as off-flavours or colours. However, there are processes that reduce the amount of naturally occurring antioxidants and awareness of that potential is just as important for those in product research and development. There is a practical need to understand not only the physiological importance of antioxidants in terms of consumer health benefit, but how they may be damaged or enhanced through the processing and packaging phases. This book presents information key to understanding how antioxidants change during production of a wide variety of food products, with a focus toward how this understanding may be translated effectively to other foods as well. Addresses how the composition of food is altered, the analytical techniques used, and the applications to other foods Presents in-chapter summary points and other translational insights into concepts, techniques, findings and approaches to processing of other foods Explores advances in analytical and methodological science within each chapter

Nutritional Composition and Antioxidant Properties of Fruits and Vegetables provides an overview of the nutritional and anti-nutritional composition, antioxidant potential, and health benefits of a wide range of commonly consumed fruits and vegetables. The book presents a comprehensive overview on a variety of topics, including inflorescence, flowers and flower buds (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage), bulb, stem and stalk (onion, celery, asparagus, celery), leaves (watercress, lettuce, spinach), fruit and seed (peppers, squash, tomato, eggplant, green beans), roots and tubers (red beet, carrots, radish), and fruits, such as citrus (orange, lemon, grapefruit), berries (blackberry, strawberry, lingonberry, bayberry, blueberry), melons (pumpkin, watermelon), and more. Each chapter, contributed by an international expert in the field, also discusses the factors influencing antioxidant content, such as genotype, environmental variation and agronomic conditions. Contains detailed information on nutritional and anti-nutritional composition for commonly consumed fruits and vegetables Presents recent epidemiological information on the health benefits of fresh produce Provides in-depth information about the antioxidant properties of a range of fruits and vegetables

Note for the electronic edition: This draft has been assembled from information prepared by authors from around the world. It has been submitted for editing and production by the USDA Agricultural Research Service Information Staff and should be cited as an electronic draft of a forthcoming publication. Because the 1986 edition is out of print, because we have added much new and updated information, and because the time to publication for so massive a project is still many months away, we are making this draft widely available for comment from industry stakeholders, as well as university research, teaching and extension staff.