Sweet potato has been identified as a crop that has great potential for alleviating food security concerns (28). However, because it is vegetatively propagated, it is prone to accumulate viruses and other pathogens. Sweet potato viruses are difficult to transmit mechanically, they occur in mixed infections, and their host range often is restricted to the family Convolvulaceae (24). These factor...

Generalization of a conditioned taste aversion (CTA) is based on similarities in taste qualities shared by the aversive substance and another taste substance. CTA experiments with rats have found that an aversion to a variety of sweet stimuli will cross-generalize with monosodium glutamate (MSG) when amiloride, a sodium channel blocker, is added to all solutions to reduce the taste of sodium. T...

An, L.V., 2004. Sweet potato leaves for growing pigs: Biomass yield, digestion and nutritive value. Doctor’s dissertation. ISSN 1401-6249, ISBN 91-576-6750-0 The aim of the present studies was to evaluate the potential of using sweet potato leaves (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam) as a protein source in diets for growing pigs. A number of sweet potato varieties were evaluated with respect to the bioma...

Sweet and bitter taste distinguishes good food sources from potential toxins, but what happens when these tastants are mixed? In this issue of Neuron, Jeong et al. (2013) show that in Drosophila, bitter compounds act through an extracellular odorant-binding protein to inhibit sweet-responsive neurons and block the response to sweet taste.

The present study was conducted to assess the suitability of blends of two sweet potato (creamand yellowflesh) varieties and maize flours in the preparation of crunchy snacks. Each of the sweet potato varieties was prepared into flour and separately blended with 0, 30 and 50% of maize flour. The blends were evaluated for proximate composition, mineral content, vitamin content, anti-nutrient fac...

Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) and related Ipomoea species are frequently infected by monopartite begomoviruses (genus Begomovirus, family Geminiviridae), known as sweepoviruses. Unlike other geminiviruses, the genomes of sweepoviruses have been recalcitrant to rendering infectious clones to date. Thus, Koch's postulates have not been fullfilled for any of the viruses in this group. Three novel...

Animals may use sweet taste to predict the caloric contents of food. Eating sweet noncaloric substances may degrade this predictive relationship, leading to positive energy balance through increased food intake and/or diminished energy expenditure. These experiments were designed to test the hypothesis that experiences that reduce the validity of sweet taste as a predictor of the caloric or nut...

Serotonergic involvement has been implicated in preferential consumption of treat foods. We tested the effect of acute tryptophan depletion (ATD) on food consumption by overweight and lean adults with and without a history of recurrent major depressive disorder (MDD). ATD and taste-matched placebo challenges were administered double-blind in counter-balanced order. Participants were classified ...