The consensus documents prepared by the OECD Working Group on the Harmonisation of Regulatory Oversight in Biotechnology (WG-HROB) contain information for use during the regulatory assessment of the environmental safety (or ‘biosafety’) of a particular product. In the area of plants, these are being published on information on the biology ofcertain species of crops and…
Read MoreEdible bananas and plantains belong primarily to Musa section Musa (traditionally Eumusa). Within this section, the originally Asian species Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana have provided the sources for domestication and development of the great majority of edible fruit. Dessert and cooking bananas and plantains are major foods worldwide, cultivated in over 130 countries throughout tropical regions and in some subtropical regions, in Asia,…
Read MoreThe plants within the family Brassicaceae constitute one of the world’s most economically important plant groups. They range from noxious weeds to leaf and root vegetables to oilseed and condiment crops. The cole vegetables are perhaps the best known group. Indeed the Brassica vegetables are a dietary staple in every part of the world with the possible exception…
Read MoreCapsicum annuum L. is a dicotyledonous flowering plant commonly grown worldwide, with many general names in English, such as hot pepper, chili, chilli or chile pepper, and as well sweet pepper and bell pepper. Sometimes the plant is just called pepper, which however is often reserved for the earlier known Asian Piper nigrum (black pepper, white pepper) in…
Read MoreThree subspecies of cassava have been recognized: Manihot esculenta ssp. esculenta is the cultivated strain, and M. esculenta ssp. flabellifolia and M. esculenta ssp. peruviana are wild forms (Allem, 1999, 2002). In this document, “cassava” will be used to refer to the cultivated strain, M. esculenta ssp. esculenta. Common synonyms in other languages are manioc (French), mandioca, macaxeira, and aipim (Portuguese), yuca (Spanish), and manioca (Italian). Attachments: Biology_of_Cassava
Read MoreThe genus Phaseolus is large, including approximately 80 cultivated and wild species, but P. vulgaris is the most widely cultivated species (Purseglove, 1968; Freytag and Debouck, 2002; Bailey, 1975; Porch et al., 2013). The most closely related species to P. vulgaris are P. albescens, P. coccineus, P costaricensis, P. dumosus, P. parvifolius, and P. persistentus (Table 1.) (Chacón et al., 2007;…
Read MoreGenerally cotton refers to four species of the genus Gossypium L. apparently domesticated independently in four separate regions, in both the Old World and the New World (Sauer, 1993; Brubaker et al., 1999c). The word is derived from the Arabic “quotn”, “kutum” or “gutum” and refers to the crop that produces spinnable fibres on the seed coat (Lee, 1984;…
Read MoreCowpea (L.) Walp.) is grown in tropical Africa, Asia, North and South America mostly as a grain, but also as a vegetable and fodder crop. It is favoured because of its wide adaptation and tolerance to several stresses. It is an important food source and is estimated to be the major protein source for more…
Read MoreMaize, or corn, is a member of the Maydeae tribe of the grass family, Poaceae. It is a robust monoecious annual plant, which requires the help of man to disperse its seeds for propagation and survival. Corn is the most efficient plant for capturing the energy of the sun and converting it into food, it has a great plasticity adapting…
Read MorePapaya, Carica papaya L., is an almost herbaceous (succulently soft-wooded), typically unbranched small tree in the family Caricaceae. Europeans first encountered papaya in the Western Hemisphere tropics by at least the early 1500s (Sauer, 1966), and various interests were soon disseminating it widely (Ferrão, 1992). Papaya is now cultivated worldwide in tropical and subtropical climates mainly for its melon-like fruit.…
Read More