Valuing underutilized sweetpotato {Ipomoea batatas L) comparing a yellow and dark purple fleshed cultivar: its nutritional content and economic potential

摘要

Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas L.) locally known as camote is still considered underutilized crop in the Philippines, inspite of its nutritional value. In some remote area, it is still considered as staple food in Dumolpos, Dalupirip, Itogon and Camandag, Asipulo, Ifugao. Mostly sweetpotato vines and roots are utilized as animal feeds. The Northern Philippines Rootcrop Research and Training Center at Benguet State University had developed technologies on sweetpotato hopia and yoghurt using 'Bengueta',a yellow fleshed and 'Haponita', a dark purple fleshed cultivar. Sweetpotato 'Bengueta', NSIC approved cultivar as BSU SP 19, is a local native collection sourced from Kapangan, Benguet locally known as Tagalog. The sweetpotato 'Haponita' is a foreign sourced with dark purple colored fleshed with high anthocyanin content and a suitable substitute for ubi. They contain nutritional benefits and functional pigments including flavones, phenolic acids, beta carotene and anthocyanins. Earlier studies have shown that these cultivars were suitable for sweetpotato strawberry and sweetpotato tamarind candy, buns, chips, puto, wine, juice etc. results showed that sweetpotato yoghurt and hopia with addition of yellow fleshed and violet fleshed sweetpotato had tremendously higher vitamin A and calcium content compared to the commercial candies, hopia and yoghurt. Vitamin A for sweetpotato hopia was higher by 9.2 pg RE using the yellow fleshed sweetpotato compared with the dark purple sweetpotato and 1.7 mg increase in calcium. Sweetpotato yoghurt has an increase of 18.3 pg RE using yellow fleshed sweetpotato and 3.3 for calcium. Return for cash expense (ROCE) was 25.52% for sweetpotato yoghurt, 25.10% for hopia, 26.94% sweetpotato-strawberry candy and 35.50% forsweetpotato-tamarind candy.