PGR News from the Pacific

Posted 5:43 PM by Luigi

Lots of news from Pohnpei

Various bits of news from Dr Lois Englberger...

Harriet Kuhnlein of the Centre for Indigenous Peoples’ Nutrition and Environment (CINE) was here in Pohnpei to help us with our joint project with CINE, the Mand project. She also is working with FAO on a poster series on indigenous foods. There is one completed one titled International Decades of the World’s Indigenous Peoples Celebrating Diversity in Global Indigenous Food. We were very happy that Karat (banana) was included on this one! Harriet points out that this poster is on the CINE website http://www.cine.mcgill.ca. There is one for celebrating diversity in indigenous food in Asia and one for Africa, and there will be one on Pacific foods.
Dr Mary Taylor has passed on to me an email titled “Green, yellow veg linked to healthier arteries” by News Archives. This provides helpful information to us in the Pacific. The article explains about a new study that shows that a diet rich in green and yellow vegetables could reduce the development of atherosclerosis by almost 40 per cent. This means that these foods provide important health benefits. So what is atherosclerosis? It is the process whereby fatty substances such as cholesterol and calcium form plaque on the inner lining of an artery, causing them to harden. If enough builds up the plaque can reduce blood flow through the artery, and if it ruptures blood clots can form, which can block the flow of blood to the heart and cause a heart attack, or stroke. The article explains that atherosclerosis occurs naturally in humans as part of the aging process, but certain factors including high blood cholesterol, smoking, high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes increase the risk. The researchers fed 53 mice a vegetable free control diet, and 54 mice a diet with 30 per cent replaced with freeze-dried peas, green beans, broccoli, corn, and carrots for sixteen weeks. The lead author of the study wrote this: “Increased vegetable consumption inhibits atherosclerosis progression through antioxidant and anti-inflammatory pathways.” The researchers could not identify a mechanism, or indeed the active substances that confer these beneficial effects, but noted that the vegetables contained a variety of micronutrients, such as carotenoids, vitamin C, vitamin E, and selenium that are potent antioxidants. Yellow-fleshed banana, giant swamp taro, pandanus and breadfruit varieties and other island foods are also rich in carotenoids and these other substances, so they are also important sources of antioxidants and part of this network of protective substances. If any of you would like more on this, let me know and I can send you the fuller report and source of information.
Mortlocks Taro Documented, Collected, and Promoted, by Amy Levendusky. From May 15 to May 18, 2006, Dr Lois Englberger and Amy Levendusky of the Island Food Community of Pohnpei (IFCP) visited the islands of Ta and Satowan in the Mortlock Islands of Chuuk in order to study and promote the different varieties of Mortlockese giant swamp taro or pula, and other local foods. A total of 32 varieties of giant swamp taro were named, described, and photographed. The local name, any alternate name, stem color, if stem has thorns, corm color, corm size, corm texture, leaf shape, growth rate, and other pertinent comments were recorded. Planting material from 21 varieties was collected and brought back to plant in the taro genebank collection located at the Pohnpei Pilot Farm in Pohnlangas, Madolenihmw, a joint project of Pohnpei Agriculture of the Office of Economic Affairs and IFCP. The corms (or the part that you eat) of 9 different varieties were also collected to prepare as samples for analyzing for micronutrient content in laboratories in Fiji and Switzerland. On May 16, 2006, a workshop was held on Ta to identify the varieties of taro. Over 30 participants from the islands of Ta, Satowan, and Moch attended. Participants were given an important health message about how yellow-fleshed carotenoid-rich varieties of local foods including banana, breadfruit, pandanus and giant swamp taro can protect against vitamin A deficiency, diabetes, heart disease, certain cancers, and anemia. A special emphasis was made on the carotenoid-rich Apuch fruit, Crataeva speciosa, which turns very yellow-orange when ripe and grows abundantly on the islands. This fruit was eaten and enjoyed in the past but now is neglected and few are eating it. It was explained that if Apuch fruit could be added to the diet again, especially to the diet of the children, they would receive great health benefits. Participants discussed about the shift from local foods to imported foods such as rice and canned meats. They were excited about starting a campaign to revive the production and consumption of local foods. After the discussing the relationship between local foods and health benefits, the rest of the workshop was dedicated to viewing taro plantlets and discussing the characteristics of the different varieties of taro. This project was supported by Pohnpei State Office of Economic Affairs and funded by the New Zealand Government. A special thanks is extended to Obet Mwarluk, Agriculture Extension Agent on Ta; Juda Amaraich, Mayor of Ta; Helbert Seilo, Rainer Sorryz, and Samuel Sammy of Ta, and Makies Mony of Satowan for providing the information used to document the different varieties of taro and for providing all the planting materials and sample corms. Appreciation is extended to Ryan Teelander, Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) on Ta, Jennifer Salzman, PCV on Satowan, and Adam Gustafson, PCV on Moch, for organizing the participants from their respective islands and in assisting facilitation for the workshop and special thanks too to Rainer Jimmy and Susie Lokopwe, Peace Corps Micronesia, for all their help in organizing this project.
I am happy to share with you about the publication of a new paper titled “Carotenoid content of different edible pandanus fruit cultivars of the Republic of the Marshall Islands” by Englberger L, Aalbersberg W, Schierle J, Marks GC, Fitzgerald MH, Muller F, Jekkein A, Alfred J, and Vander Velde N in the Journal of Food Composition and Analysis, Volume 19, pages 484-494, 2006. It is available on-line at this website and here is the abstract: As Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is a serious problem in the Republic of the
Marshall Islands (RMI), it is important to identify locally-grown acceptable
sources of vitamin A. Pandanus fruit, a traditional Marshallese staple food, has yellow-orange coloration suggesting substantial carotenoid content.
However, few of the many Marshallese cultivars were previously analyzed for nutrient content. Thus, this study was conducted in order to identify
carotenoid-rich Marshallese pandanus cultivars that could be promoted to
alleviate VAD. Ethnography was used to select cultivars and assess
acceptability. Thirteen cultivars were analyzed by two laboratories for ?-
and ß-carotene and other carotenoids using high performance liquid
chromatography. The cultivars contained a range of carotenoid levels (21 to 902 µg ß-carotene/100 g), with higher levels in cultivars having deeper
yellow-orange colored fruit; 10 cultivars had significant levels meeting
estimated vitamin A requirements within normal consumption patterns. There was excellent agreement between the laboratories’ results. Pandanus has been increasingly neglected in recent years, but is still well-liked and
considered a Marshallese health food. The promotion of carotenoid-rich
culturally-acceptable pandanus cultivars could contribute to alleviating vitamin A, micronutrient, and chronic disease problems in the RMI and other Pacific contexts, particularly atoll islands, where pandanus is an important food.
For those of you who would like a pdf file of this paper, let me know and I am happy to send it. Unfortunately, there are a number of errors in the printed paper, and the journal greatly regrets about that. For example, the captions to Figures 2 and 4 are transposed, so that the preserved pandanus is described as a tree and the pandanus tree is described as preserved pandanus. However, to help correct this, the journal is publishing an Erratum in the following issue, and we are very thankful about that. Thanks again to all of you in the Marshall Islands and elsewhere assisting in this work!
I would like to introduce you to Marilyn Knudson, a graduate student at the University of Guam Micronesian Studies program, who is very interested in pandanus. As part of her course work, she has written an essay titled “Pandanus tectorius in Micronesia: A Brief Overview of its Use and Importance”. She is happy to share it with anyone who is interested. Please contact her at this email address: quokkas3@ite.net. She points out that Father Kayser’s booklet of ethnographic description of pandanus use in pre-World War 1 Nauru is an important resource on the topic and that it is rarely cited. In addition to her first essay on pandanus, she is now involved in writing a second one. Thank you again Marilyn for sharing with us about your first essay and we look forward to your next one too!



	A blog maintained by Tevita Kete, PGR Officer Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), Suva, Fiji Islands
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. Box 77 Nausori Fiji Islands Tel: (679) 3477044 Fax: (679) 3477546-400262 Email: apisainu@yahoo.com Dr Maurice Wong Service du Developpement Rural B.P. 100 Papeete Tahiti 98713 French Polynesia Tel: (689) 42 81 44 Fax: (689) 42 08 31 Email: maurice.wong@rural.gov.pf Mr Tianeti Beenna Ioane Head, Research Section Division of Agriculture Ministry of Environment, Lands and Agricultural Development P.O. Box 267 Tarawa Kiribati Tel: (686) 28096-28108-28080 Fax: (686) 28121 Email : agriculture@tskl.net.ki; Beenna_ti@yahoo.com Mr Frederick Muller Secretary Ministry of Resources & Development P.O. Box 1727 Majuro 96960 Marshall Islands Tel: (692) 6253206 Fax: (692) 6257471 Email: rndsec@ntamar.net Mr Herman Francisco Director Bureau of Agriculture Ministry of Resources & Development P.O. Box 460 Koror 96940 Palau Tel: (680) 4881517 Fax: (680) 4881725 Email: bnrd@pnccwg.palaunet.com Ms Rosa Kambuou Principal Scientist PGR NARI Dry Lowlands Programme Laloki Agricultural Research Station P.O. Box 1828 Boroko National Capital District Papua New Guinea Tel: (675) 3235511 Fax: (675) 3234733 Email: kambuou@global.net.pg Ms Laisene Samuelu Principal Crop Development Officer Crops Division Ministry of Agriculture, Forests, Fisheries & Meteorology P.O. Box 1874 Apia Samoa Tel: (685) 23416-20605 Fax: (685) 20607-23996 Email: lsamuelu@lesamoa.net Mr Jimi Saelea Director of Research Department of Agriculture and Livestock P.O. Box G13 Honiara Guadalcanal Solomon Islands Tel: (677) 27987 Mr Tony Jansen Planting Materials Network Kastom Gaden Association Burns Creek, Honiara P.O. Box 742 Honiara Solomon Islands Tel: (677) 39551 Email: kastomgaden@solomon.com.sb Mr Finao Pole Head of Research Ministry of Agriculture & Forests P.O. 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	Monday, June 26, 2006 Posted 5:43 PM by Luigi Lots of news from Pohnpei Various bits of news from Dr Lois Englberger... Harriet Kuhnlein of the Centre for Indigenous Peoples’ Nutrition and Environment (CINE) was here in Pohnpei to help us with our joint project with CINE, the Mand project. She also is working with FAO on a poster series on indigenous foods. There is one completed one titled International Decades of the World’s Indigenous Peoples Celebrating Diversity in Global Indigenous Food. We were very happy that Karat (banana) was included on this one! Harriet points out that this poster is on the CINE website http://www.cine.mcgill.ca. There is one for celebrating diversity in indigenous food in Asia and one for Africa, and there will be one on Pacific foods. Dr Mary Taylor has passed on to me an email titled “Green, yellow veg linked to healthier arteries” by News Archives. This provides helpful information to us in the Pacific. The article explains about a new study that shows that a diet rich in green and yellow vegetables could reduce the development of atherosclerosis by almost 40 per cent. This means that these foods provide important health benefits. So what is atherosclerosis? It is the process whereby fatty substances such as cholesterol and calcium form plaque on the inner lining of an artery, causing them to harden. If enough builds up the plaque can reduce blood flow through the artery, and if it ruptures blood clots can form, which can block the flow of blood to the heart and cause a heart attack, or stroke. The article explains that atherosclerosis occurs naturally in humans as part of the aging process, but certain factors including high blood cholesterol, smoking, high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes increase the risk. The researchers fed 53 mice a vegetable free control diet, and 54 mice a diet with 30 per cent replaced with freeze-dried peas, green beans, broccoli, corn, and carrots for sixteen weeks. The lead author of the study wrote this: “Increased vegetable consumption inhibits atherosclerosis progression through antioxidant and anti-inflammatory pathways.” The researchers could not identify a mechanism, or indeed the active substances that confer these beneficial effects, but noted that the vegetables contained a variety of micronutrients, such as carotenoids, vitamin C, vitamin E, and selenium that are potent antioxidants. Yellow-fleshed banana, giant swamp taro, pandanus and breadfruit varieties and other island foods are also rich in carotenoids and these other substances, so they are also important sources of antioxidants and part of this network of protective substances. If any of you would like more on this, let me know and I can send you the fuller report and source of information. Mortlocks Taro Documented, Collected, and Promoted, by Amy Levendusky. From May 15 to May 18, 2006, Dr Lois Englberger and Amy Levendusky of the Island Food Community of Pohnpei (IFCP) visited the islands of Ta and Satowan in the Mortlock Islands of Chuuk in order to study and promote the different varieties of Mortlockese giant swamp taro or pula, and other local foods. A total of 32 varieties of giant swamp taro were named, described, and photographed. The local name, any alternate name, stem color, if stem has thorns, corm color, corm size, corm texture, leaf shape, growth rate, and other pertinent comments were recorded. Planting material from 21 varieties was collected and brought back to plant in the taro genebank collection located at the Pohnpei Pilot Farm in Pohnlangas, Madolenihmw, a joint project of Pohnpei Agriculture of the Office of Economic Affairs and IFCP. The corms (or the part that you eat) of 9 different varieties were also collected to prepare as samples for analyzing for micronutrient content in laboratories in Fiji and Switzerland. On May 16, 2006, a workshop was held on Ta to identify the varieties of taro. Over 30 participants from the islands of Ta, Satowan, and Moch attended. Participants were given an important health message about how yellow-fleshed carotenoid-rich varieties of local foods including banana, breadfruit, pandanus and giant swamp taro can protect against vitamin A deficiency, diabetes, heart disease, certain cancers, and anemia. A special emphasis was made on the carotenoid-rich Apuch fruit, Crataeva speciosa, which turns very yellow-orange when ripe and grows abundantly on the islands. This fruit was eaten and enjoyed in the past but now is neglected and few are eating it. It was explained that if Apuch fruit could be added to the diet again, especially to the diet of the children, they would receive great health benefits. Participants discussed about the shift from local foods to imported foods such as rice and canned meats. They were excited about starting a campaign to revive the production and consumption of local foods. After the discussing the relationship between local foods and health benefits, the rest of the workshop was dedicated to viewing taro plantlets and discussing the characteristics of the different varieties of taro. This project was supported by Pohnpei State Office of Economic Affairs and funded by the New Zealand Government. A special thanks is extended to Obet Mwarluk, Agriculture Extension Agent on Ta; Juda Amaraich, Mayor of Ta; Helbert Seilo, Rainer Sorryz, and Samuel Sammy of Ta, and Makies Mony of Satowan for providing the information used to document the different varieties of taro and for providing all the planting materials and sample corms. Appreciation is extended to Ryan Teelander, Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) on Ta, Jennifer Salzman, PCV on Satowan, and Adam Gustafson, PCV on Moch, for organizing the participants from their respective islands and in assisting facilitation for the workshop and special thanks too to Rainer Jimmy and Susie Lokopwe, Peace Corps Micronesia, for all their help in organizing this project. I am happy to share with you about the publication of a new paper titled “Carotenoid content of different edible pandanus fruit cultivars of the Republic of the Marshall Islands” by Englberger L, Aalbersberg W, Schierle J, Marks GC, Fitzgerald MH, Muller F, Jekkein A, Alfred J, and Vander Velde N in the Journal of Food Composition and Analysis, Volume 19, pages 484-494, 2006. It is available on-line at this website and here is the abstract: As Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is a serious problem in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), it is important to identify locally-grown acceptable sources of vitamin A. Pandanus fruit, a traditional Marshallese staple food, has yellow-orange coloration suggesting substantial carotenoid content. However, few of the many Marshallese cultivars were previously analyzed for nutrient content. Thus, this study was conducted in order to identify carotenoid-rich Marshallese pandanus cultivars that could be promoted to alleviate VAD. Ethnography was used to select cultivars and assess acceptability. Thirteen cultivars were analyzed by two laboratories for ?- and ß-carotene and other carotenoids using high performance liquid chromatography. The cultivars contained a range of carotenoid levels (21 to 902 µg ß-carotene/100 g), with higher levels in cultivars having deeper yellow-orange colored fruit; 10 cultivars had significant levels meeting estimated vitamin A requirements within normal consumption patterns. There was excellent agreement between the laboratories’ results. Pandanus has been increasingly neglected in recent years, but is still well-liked and considered a Marshallese health food. The promotion of carotenoid-rich culturally-acceptable pandanus cultivars could contribute to alleviating vitamin A, micronutrient, and chronic disease problems in the RMI and other Pacific contexts, particularly atoll islands, where pandanus is an important food. For those of you who would like a pdf file of this paper, let me know and I am happy to send it. Unfortunately, there are a number of errors in the printed paper, and the journal greatly regrets about that. For example, the captions to Figures 2 and 4 are transposed, so that the preserved pandanus is described as a tree and the pandanus tree is described as preserved pandanus. However, to help correct this, the journal is publishing an Erratum in the following issue, and we are very thankful about that. Thanks again to all of you in the Marshall Islands and elsewhere assisting in this work! I would like to introduce you to Marilyn Knudson, a graduate student at the University of Guam Micronesian Studies program, who is very interested in pandanus. As part of her course work, she has written an essay titled “Pandanus tectorius in Micronesia: A Brief Overview of its Use and Importance”. She is happy to share it with anyone who is interested. Please contact her at this email address: quokkas3@ite.net. She points out that Father Kayser’s booklet of ethnographic description of pandanus use in pre-World War 1 Nauru is an important resource on the topic and that it is rarely cited. In addition to her first essay on pandanus, she is now involved in writing a second one. Thank you again Marilyn for sharing with us about your first essay and we look forward to your next one too! * 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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