China
Africa
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Roots and Tubers
Published in Christopher Cumo, Ancestral Diets and Nutrition, 2020
In New Guinea’s Wantoat Valley, sweet potatoes were the primary food and almost the only domesticated plant.10 The valley typified the mountains, where the root supplied up to 90 percent of calories.11 Alone among New Guinean crops, sweet potatoes yield food above 1,200 meters (1,312.3 yards or 3,937 feet).12 International Potato Center researcher Jennifer Woolfe judged them the “staff of life of the highland Papuan.”13 New Guineans tend to harvest part of a root, taking care not to damage the plant so that it continues to produce.14 New Guinea is well positioned for this practice because vines and roots, being perennials in the tropics as noted, supply edibles year-round. Sweet potatoes may have reached the island only around 1700, but once established, they reconfigured the economy. They were favored over traditional crops such as taro (Colocasia esculenta) because they required less labor, better tolerated pests and pathogens, and yielded more calories and nutrients on infertile soils.
Araceae of Agasthyamala Biosphere Reserve, South Western Ghats, India
Published in Jayanta Kumar Patra, Gitishree Das, Sanjeet Kumar, Hrudayanath Thatoi, Ethnopharmacology and Biodiversity of Medicinal Plants, 2019
Jose Mathew, P. M. Salim, P. M. Radhamany, Kadakasseril Varghese George
Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott, Melet. Bot. 1: 18. 1832; Alocasia dussii Dammer; A. illustris W.Bull; Aron colocasium (L.) St.- Lag.; Arum chinense L.; A. colocasia L.; A. colocasioides Desf.; A. esculentum L.; A. lividum Salisb.; A. nymphaeifolium(Vent.) Roxb.; A. peltatum Lam., Caladium acre R.Br.; C. colocasia (L.) W.Wight; C. colocasioides (Desf.) Brongn.; C. esculentum (L.) Vent.; C. glycyrrhizum Fraser; C. nymphaeifolium Vent.; C. violaceum Desf.; Calla gaby Blanco; C. virosa Roxb.; Colocasia acris (R.Br.) Schott; C. aegyptica Samp.; C. antiquorum R.Br.;C. colocasia (L.) Huth; C. euchlora K.Koch & Linden; C. formosana Hayata; C. gracillis Engl.; C. himaensis Royle; C. konishii Hayata; C. neocaledonica Van Houtte; C. nymphaeifolia (Vent.) Kunth; C. peltata (Lam.) Samp.; C. vera Hassk.; C. violacea (Desf.) auct.; C. virosa (Roxb.) Kunth; C. vulgaris Raf.; Leucocasia esculenta (L.) Nakai; Steudnera virosa (Roxb.) Prain; Zantedeschia virosa (Roxb.) K.Koch. Chembu, Kaattuchembu & Seppankizhangu, (Mal.)
Ethnic Food Plants of Indo-Gangetic Plains and Central India
Published in T. Pullaiah, K. V. Krishnamurthy, Bir Bahadur, Ethnobotany of India, 2017
Leaves of Colocasia esculenta are widely used as vegetable in the all the regions of Indo-Gangetic and Central India (Bandyopadhyay et al., 2012; Kapale, 2013). Young leaves of Cycas pectinata are eaten as vegetable in West Bengal (Bandyopadhyay and Mukherjee, 2009).
Aldose reductase inhibitors: 2013-present
Published in Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Patents, 2019
Luca Quattrini, Concettina La Motta
Kim Jin Suk and co-workers, from Korea, focused on Hedera rhombea, an evergreen plant native of the coast of East Asia and belonging to the Araliaceae family, whose extracts are claimed by the authors as effective ALR2 inhibitors able to prevent or treat diabetic complications [73]. Sun Seong Lim and co-workers, from the Hallym University, took into account the Valerianaceae Nardostachys chinensis, commonly used as an analgesic herb in the Ayurvedic tradition [74]. The use of a phytocomplex obtained from the plant and containing protocatechuic acid 8, caffeic acid 9, chlorogenic acid 10 and its methyl ester 11, debilone 12, nardoxide 13, and 1,5-di-O-caffeoyl-quinic acid 14 (Figure 5), is recommended by the authors to alleviate, prevent or treat diabetic complications. Moreover, it can be also exploited as an active ingredient to enrich foodstuff, thus obtaining a novel type of functional food able to provide benefits to diabetic people. The same authors analyzed also the perennial Colocasia esculenta, a herbaceous plant belonging to the Araceae family and native to South-East or southern Central Asia, which is commonly used as a staple food in tropical and sub-tropical regions throughout the world [75]. Extract obtained from Colocasia esculenta has a complex chemical profile comprising one amino acid, L-tryptophan 15, and a number of polyphenolic derivatives like vitexin 16 and its 6-isomer isovitexin 17, the corresponding 2-cathecol-analogues orientin 18 and isoorientin 19, the luteoline derivatives 20 and 21, and the cynnamic derivatives 22–24 (Figure 5). Similarly, to other natural phytocomplexes, the one obtained from Colocasia esculenta is able to inhibit ALR2 activity, thus being suitable for preventing and treating diabetic complications. The same functional profile has been also claimed by the same authors for extracts obtained from Syringa oblata [76]. This is a deciduous shrub of the Oleaceae family, native to China and commonly called lilac, which provides an extract endowed with anti-oxidant activity. The concomitant ability to block the catalytic activity of ALR2 and the formation of advanced glycation end products makes this extract a privileged formulation to be administered to diabetic people.