Potato

Summary

The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant Solanum tuberosum and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern United States to southern Chile. The potato was originally believed to have been domesticated () by Native Americans independently in multiple locations, but later genetic studies traced a single origin, in the area of present-day southern Peru and extreme northwestern Bolivia. Potatoes were domesticated there approximately 7,000–10,000 years ago, from a species in the S. brevicaule complex. In the Andes region of South America, where the species is indigenous, some close relatives of the potato are cultivated. Potatoes were introduced to Europe from the Americas by the Spanish in the second half of the 16th century. Today they are a staple food in many parts of the world and an integral part of much of the world's food supply. , potatoes were the world's

Official source

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato

About this result

This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.

Related publications (3)

Related publications

Related people

Related units

Related concepts (106)

Related concepts

Related courses (7)

Related courses

Related lectures (7)

Related lectures

Solar cooking potential in Switzerland: Nodal modelling and optimization

Olivia Valérie Charlotte Bouvard, Luc Burnier, Timothée Chatelain, Jérémy Jacques Antonin Fleury, Dasaraden Mauree, Josef Andreas Schuler, Samson Taylor

Solar cooking is one possible solution to reduce the domination of fossil fuel in the domestic sector and to benefit from renewable energy. This study assesses the solar cooking potential in Switzerland. A nodal model, based on energy balance equations of a box-type solar cooker is implemented in Matlab. Model parameters that cannot be determined experimentally or analytically are evaluated through an optimization procedure based on a Genetic Algorithm (GA). The model is able to predict the temperature of the cooking vessel with an average relative error around 5%. Based on its reliability, the model is simulated over a year for different locations in Switzerland in order to determine the solar cooking potential. It is characterized by a metric that represents the number of days in a year the oven could be used to cook potatoes for two persons. It is found that the cooking times of potatoes can be well predicted by an Arrhenius law with an activation energy of 74.14 [kJ/mol]. The potato cooking criterion is based on the Arrhenius equation and determines if the pot simulated temperature profile of a particular day allows to cook potatoes. The North-East of Switzerland is the least favourable area for solar cooking with theoretically around 155 cooking days per year. Around 240 days are estimated to be suitable for cooking in the cantons of Valais and Grisons, which represents a significant potential for solar cooking in Switzerland.

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD2019

Quantifying dermal exposure to pesticides in farming systems in developing countries is of special interest for the estimation of potential health risks, especially when there is a lack of occupational hygiene regulations. In this paper we present the results of a dermal exposure assessment for the potato farming system in the high- lands of Colombia, where farmers apply pesticides with hand pressure sprayers without any personal protective equipment. The fractioning of the pesticide, in terms of potential and actual dermal exposure, was determined via the whole-body dosimetry methodology, using the tracer uranine as pesticide surrogate, and luminescence spectrometry as analytical method. We assessed the three activities involved in pesticide management: preparation, application, and cleaning; analyzed three types of nozzles: one with a standard discharge and two modified by farmers to increase the discharge; and derived the protection factor given by work clothing. Our results suggest that to reduce the health risk, three aspects have to be considered: (i) avoiding the modification of nozzles, which affects the droplet size spectrum and increases the level of dermal exposure; (ii) using adequate work cloth- ing made of thick fabrics, especially on the upper body parts; and (iii) cleaning properly the tank sprayer before the application activity.

Elsevier2012

Pesticide Uptake in Potatoes: Model and Field Experiments

Claudia Rebeca Binder Signer

A dynamic model for uptake of pesticides in potatoes is presented and evaluated with measurements performed within a field trial in the region of Boyaca ́, Colombia. The model takes into account the time between pesticide applications and harvest, the time between harvest and consumption, the amount of spray deposition on soil surface, mobility and degradation of pesticide in soil, diffusive uptake and persistence due to crop growth and metabolism in plant material, and loss due to food processing. Food processing steps included were cleaning, washing, storing, and cooking. Pesticide concentrations were measured periodically in soil and potato samples from the beginning of tuber formation until harvest. The model was able to predict the magnitude and temporal profile of the experimentally derived pesticide concentrations well, with all measurements falling within the 90% confidence interval. The fraction of chlorpyrifos applied on the field during plant cultivation that eventually is ingested by the consumer is on average 10-4-10-7, depending on the time between pesticide application and ingestion and the processing step considered.

2011