PGR News from the Pacific

Posted 3:47 PM by Luigi

News about carotenoids in banana and other Pacific crops

From Dr Lois Englberger.

I am back from the International Congress of Nutrition, held in Durban, South Africa. It was a great meeting and I learned a lot. While there, I learned about the electronic version of an FAO poster on indigenous foods, which features Karat banana:

You may recall that Karat is one of the most carotenoid-rich bananas in the world. Provitamin A carotenoids protect against vitamin A deficiency and anemia, and carotenoid-rich foods may also protect against diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Karat is also very rich in riboflavin, vitamin B2, and is likely to be the most riboflavin-rich banana in the world as well! Very few plant foods are rich in riboflavin. The poster does not however give the information on Karat's riboflavin content as it was developed prior to our work in that area of food composition.

Professor Harriet Kuhnlein and the Centre for Indigenous Peoples' Nutrition and Environment developed the poster. As you see, they have selected seven nutrient-rich indigenous foods from around the world, and presented photos and information about those foods. So it is quite neat that Karat is among those seven!

My oral presentation was at the main meeting on Tuesday 20 September and was titled "Indigenous Food Resources in the Federated States of Micronesia." A short paper was written for this presentation and that is available for any interested. This is mainly a summary of our work identifying and promoting nutrient-rich foods (such as Karat). Also I presented a poster on Kiribati and Marshall Islands pandanus, which is a product of my work in 2003 and 2004, in collaboration with the various agencies and officers there. The abstract for this is also available, and I can later provide it in the published version for those interested.

You might note that I also took some dried Karat banana to the meeting in South Africa and showed it to some researchers for the DSM Nutritional Products, based in Switzerland. They were very impressed and one said that in Europe the Karat banana would be considered a "functional food", having special health benefits. Sight and Life and the DSM Nutritional Products laboratory in Switzerland have also been very supportive in helping us find out about the nutrient content of Karat.

There are several pieces of press coverage on carotenoids provided by the International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain (INIBAP). This is a real breakthrough as carotenoids are not usually mentioned in that primarily agricultural-based organization.

Through the encouragement of an agriculturalist of a regional Pacific organization, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, I submitted an abstract for the First International Congress on Musa, held in July 2004. That abstract was accepted for an oral presentation, and there was later a lot of press coverage. First, the abstract was published in their abstracts book:

Englberger L and Lorens A. 2004. Banana cultivars in Micronesia: newly
recognized sources of provitamin A and total carotenoids and other
nutrients. Abstract Guide. 1st International Congress on Musa: Harnessing
research to improve livelihoods, 6-9 July, 2004, Penang, Malaysia. page 241

Then INIBAP put out a press release on the findings of the Karat banana, and this led to an article in the New Scientist as follows:

Coghlan A. 2004. Orange banana to boost kids' eyes. New Scientist 10 July 2004. http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996120

Following that was a myriad of articles all over the world, many which I could not read because of their being in foreign languages, including Chinese, Hindi, Vietnamese, Italian, but also in the Guardian of the UK and in Die Welt of Germany. Many journalists later wrote me and asked for further photos and information, and one lay magazine later sent me a copy of their issue of "L'actualite" October 2004, where they had the article in French...even giving the information that the Karat banana contains 25 times the beta-carotene content compared to the common banana.

The INIBAP organizers and scientific writer later wrote this in their InfoMusa Vol 13, No. 2, 2004, in the article "Highlights on the First International congress on Musa" (p 38):

"Lois Englberger's talk on carotenoid levels in cultivars from Micronesia (see
INFOMUSA 12(2):2-5) drew a lot of interest, not only from the participants but
from the media. Her data show that some traditional varieties contain enough
provitamin A carotenoids at realistic consumption levels to prevent vitamin A
deficiency (VAD) a major cause of debilitating health problems in developing
countries and a significant contributor to infant and maternal mortality. Lois
also pointed out that there are many yellow- and orange-fleshed bananas in other
countries - such as 'Pisang raja', 'Pisang berangan', 'Nendran' in India and
'Lakatan' in the Philippines - which could have an impact on eliminating VAD and
improving general health."

The abstracts of the oral presentations and posters are available on INIBAP's website at www.inibap.org.

I am very convinced (and other of my colleagues are too) that there is an immense still unrecognized potential in carotenoid-rich banana varieties throughout the world, and that this could have an immense effect in improving health, not only vitamin A deficiency but in alleviating certain chronic disease problems. Yet, we have not yet been very successful in getting the attention of a funding opportunity for supporting this work, not only of promoting the rare banana varieties already identified as carotenoid-rich, but also of continuing the work in identifying further varieties, and looking into other issues, such as bioavailability of the carotenoids in bananas.



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This weblog documents the activities of Pacific Agricultural Genetic Resources Network (PAPGREN), along with other information on plant genetic resources (PGR) in the Pacific. The myriad varieties found within cultivated plants are fundamental to the present and future productivity of agriculture. PAPGREN, which is coordinated by the Land Resources Division of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), helps Pacific countries and territories to conserve their crop genetic diversity sustainably, with technical assistance from the Bioversity International (BI) and support from NZAID and ACIAR. SPC also hosts the Centre of Pacific Crops and Trees (CEPaCT). The CEPaCT maintains regional in vitro collections of crops important to the Pacific and carries out research on tissue culture technology. The CEPaCT Adviser is Dr Mary Taylor (MaryT@spc.int), the CEPaCT Curator is Ms Valerie Tuia (ValerieT@spc.int). PAPGREN coordination and support IPGRI ACIAR NZAID CTA SPC PAPGREN CEPaCT Click on the thumbnail to see a map of the locations of Pacific genebanks. Click here to download a regional directory of genebanks in the Pacific, including information on their location, contact details and holdings. PAPGREN partners Mr William Wigmore Director of Research Ministry of Agriculture Department of Resources & Development P.O. Box 96 Rarotonga Cook Islands Tel: (682) 28711-29720 Fax: (682) 21881 Email: cimoa@oyster.net.ck Mr Adelino S. Lorens Chief Agriculture Pohnpei Office of Economic Affairs P.O. Box 1028 Kolonia Pohnpei 96941 Federated States of Micronesia Tel: (691) 3202400 Fax: (691) 3202127 Email: pniagriculture@mail.fm Dr Lois Englberger Island Food Community of Pohnpei Research Advisor P.O. Box 2299 Kolonia Pohnpei 96941 Federated States of Micronesia Email: nutrition@mail.fm Mr Apisai Ucuboi Director of Research Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries & Forest Koronivia Research Station P.O. 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Box 14 Nuku'alofa Tonga Tel: (676) 23038 Fax: (676) 24271 Email: thaangana@hotmail.com Mr Frazer Bule Lehi Head of Research Department of Agriculture & Rural Development Private Mail Bag 040 Port Vila Vanuatu Tel: (678) 22525 Fax: (678) 25265 Email: flehi@hotmail.com Other links Other CROP agencies Forum Secretariat University of the South Pacific SPREP Pacific biodiversity Biodiversity hotspots Breadfruit Institute Hawaiian native plants Intellectual property rights Nature Conservancy PBIF PestNet SIDS WWF South Pacific Program Other Pacific organizations Foundation of the Peoples of the South Pacific Micronesian Seminar Te Puna web directory Pacific news Cafe Pacific CocoNET Wireless Island Directory Pacific Islands News Pacific Islands Report Pacific Islands Travel Pacific Time South Pacific travel Time Pacific Interested in GIS? DIVA-GIS	Sunday, October 02, 2005 Posted 3:47 PM by Luigi News about carotenoids in banana and other Pacific crops From Dr Lois Englberger. I am back from the International Congress of Nutrition, held in Durban, South Africa. It was a great meeting and I learned a lot. While there, I learned about the electronic version of an FAO poster on indigenous foods, which features Karat banana: You may recall that Karat is one of the most carotenoid-rich bananas in the world. Provitamin A carotenoids protect against vitamin A deficiency and anemia, and carotenoid-rich foods may also protect against diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Karat is also very rich in riboflavin, vitamin B2, and is likely to be the most riboflavin-rich banana in the world as well! Very few plant foods are rich in riboflavin. The poster does not however give the information on Karat's riboflavin content as it was developed prior to our work in that area of food composition. Professor Harriet Kuhnlein and the Centre for Indigenous Peoples' Nutrition and Environment developed the poster. As you see, they have selected seven nutrient-rich indigenous foods from around the world, and presented photos and information about those foods. So it is quite neat that Karat is among those seven! My oral presentation was at the main meeting on Tuesday 20 September and was titled "Indigenous Food Resources in the Federated States of Micronesia." A short paper was written for this presentation and that is available for any interested. This is mainly a summary of our work identifying and promoting nutrient-rich foods (such as Karat). Also I presented a poster on Kiribati and Marshall Islands pandanus, which is a product of my work in 2003 and 2004, in collaboration with the various agencies and officers there. The abstract for this is also available, and I can later provide it in the published version for those interested. You might note that I also took some dried Karat banana to the meeting in South Africa and showed it to some researchers for the DSM Nutritional Products, based in Switzerland. They were very impressed and one said that in Europe the Karat banana would be considered a "functional food", having special health benefits. Sight and Life and the DSM Nutritional Products laboratory in Switzerland have also been very supportive in helping us find out about the nutrient content of Karat. There are several pieces of press coverage on carotenoids provided by the International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain (INIBAP). This is a real breakthrough as carotenoids are not usually mentioned in that primarily agricultural-based organization. Through the encouragement of an agriculturalist of a regional Pacific organization, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, I submitted an abstract for the First International Congress on Musa, held in July 2004. That abstract was accepted for an oral presentation, and there was later a lot of press coverage. First, the abstract was published in their abstracts book: Englberger L and Lorens A. 2004. Banana cultivars in Micronesia: newly recognized sources of provitamin A and total carotenoids and other nutrients. Abstract Guide. 1st International Congress on Musa: Harnessing research to improve livelihoods, 6-9 July, 2004, Penang, Malaysia. page 241 Then INIBAP put out a press release on the findings of the Karat banana, and this led to an article in the New Scientist as follows: Coghlan A. 2004. Orange banana to boost kids' eyes. New Scientist 10 July 2004. http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996120 Following that was a myriad of articles all over the world, many which I could not read because of their being in foreign languages, including Chinese, Hindi, Vietnamese, Italian, but also in the Guardian of the UK and in Die Welt of Germany. Many journalists later wrote me and asked for further photos and information, and one lay magazine later sent me a copy of their issue of "L'actualite" October 2004, where they had the article in French...even giving the information that the Karat banana contains 25 times the beta-carotene content compared to the common banana. The INIBAP organizers and scientific writer later wrote this in their InfoMusa Vol 13, No. 2, 2004, in the article "Highlights on the First International congress on Musa" (p 38): "Lois Englberger's talk on carotenoid levels in cultivars from Micronesia (see INFOMUSA 12(2):2-5) drew a lot of interest, not only from the participants but from the media. Her data show that some traditional varieties contain enough provitamin A carotenoids at realistic consumption levels to prevent vitamin A deficiency (VAD) a major cause of debilitating health problems in developing countries and a significant contributor to infant and maternal mortality. Lois also pointed out that there are many yellow- and orange-fleshed bananas in other countries - such as 'Pisang raja', 'Pisang berangan', 'Nendran' in India and 'Lakatan' in the Philippines - which could have an impact on eliminating VAD and improving general health." The abstracts of the oral presentations and posters are available on INIBAP's website at www.inibap.org. I am very convinced (and other of my colleagues are too) that there is an immense still unrecognized potential in carotenoid-rich banana varieties throughout the world, and that this could have an immense effect in improving health, not only vitamin A deficiency but in alleviating certain chronic disease problems. Yet, we have not yet been very successful in getting the attention of a funding opportunity for supporting this work, not only of promoting the rare banana varieties already identified as carotenoid-rich, but also of continuing the work in identifying further varieties, and looking into other issues, such as bioavailability of the carotenoids in bananas. * Comments: Post a Comment	Archive October 2002 November 2002 December 2002 January 2003 February 2003 March 2003 April 2003 May 2003 June 2003 July 2003 August 2003 September 2003 October 2003 November 2003 December 2003 January 2004 February 2004 March 2004 April 2004 May 2004 June 2004 July 2004 August 2004 September 2004 October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 August 2008 September 2008 October 2008 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 April 2009 May 2009 June 2009 July 2009 August 2009 September 2009 October 2009 November 2009 January 2010 RSS Feed Alternative feed Contact Tevita Something new: Agrobiodiversity Weblog: For discussions of conservation and sustainable use of the genetic resources of crops, livestock and their wild relatives. 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