Gran Bretaña: Purple Magic potato gets the nod
PURPLE MAGIC, a new breed of Northern Ireland potato (right) with high anthocyanin content, has reached the final of Northern Ireland’s INVENT 2016 science competition.
AFBI scientist, Paul Watts, has been using innovative techniques to elevate disease resistance and tolerance to stress within the institute’s potato breeding programme for the last 30 years – but recently, with a growing awareness of the positive health benefits of consumption of coloured fruit and vegetables, he set about inventing a new variety for modern consumers.
‘‘In the early 2000s, medical and nutritional research began to show there might be significant health benefits from eating fruit and vegetables with high levels of anthocyanins,” he explained.
“In 2003, we made a series of crosses with coloured ‘heritage varieties’ to try and boost the levels of antioxidants. The crosses yielded a rainbow of colour in the 2000-plus seedlings AFBI produced and had better yields and disease resistance than the parents. We are now registering the variety in Europe and plan to have it on the market by 2018.”
Fuente: http://www.thescottishfarmer.co.uk/article/purple-magic-potato-gets-nod
