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Botany
A herbaceous vine with alternate heart-shaped or palmately lobed leaves
and sympetalous flowers. The edible root is long and tapered with a
smooth skin of varying colors from red, purple, brown and white. The
flesh varies from white, orange, purple and yellow.
Relative of kangkong and morning glory. Some cultivars are grown as
ornamental plants.
A crop plant with sweet tasting tuberous roots
Viney annual with a milky juice.
Leaves have entire or irregular margins.
Perfect flowers about 5 cm long, funnel-shaped, purple, self-sterile,
and rarely producing seeds.
5 stamens of different lengths attached to corolla (epipetalous)
with hairy filaments.
5-celled ovary enveloped with dense white hairs, surrounded with
a yellow nectary disk that terminates into prominent spongy white
stigma.
Stems or runners, sprawling several meters long, take root when
in contact with soil.
Produces fleshy roots that are ready for harvest in 4-8 months
provided leaves are not regularly pruned or topped.
Leafy stems and roots are vegetative propagules.
Distribution
A warm season crop extensively cultivated in the Philippines.
Can be planted any time of the year.
Easily propagated from stem cuttings.
Parts utilized
Tops, leaves and edible roots.
Constituents
and properties
• Source of polyphenolic
antioxidants.
• Leaves have a high content of polyphenolics - anthocyanins and
phenolic acids, with at least 15 biologically active anthocyanins with
medicinal value.
• Polyphenols have physiologic funtions, radical scavenging activity,
antimutagenic, anticancer, antidiabetes and antibacterial activity in
vitro and vivo.
• Considered hemostatic, spleen invigorating.
Uses
Nutritional
Edible: Leaves and roots.
Has a higher nutritional value than the common potato.
Good source of vitamins A, B and C, iron, calcium and phosphorus.
High in complex carbohydrates and dietary fiber; deficient in protein.
Leafy tops eaten as vegetables.
A component of many traditional cuisines.
A staple food crop in some countries.
Industrial
Starch and industrial alcohol production.
Folkloric
Tops, especially purplish ones, used for diabetes.
Crushed leaves applied to boils and acne.
For diarrhea: Boiled or boiled roots.
Others
• Dengue: Like gatas-gatas
(Euphorbia hirta), there have been anecdotal reports of the use of Ipomoea
batatas in dengue, with improvement in platelet counts being
attributed to decoctions of kamote tops.
Preparation: kamote tops are boiled in wate for 5 minutesr to extract
the juice
Studios
• Diabetes : (1) Despite its "sweet" name, it
may be beneficial for diabetes as some studies suggest it may stabilize
blood sugars and lower insulin resistance. (2) Study showed the flavone
extracted from IB leaf could control blood sugar and modulate the metabolism
of glucose and blood lipid, and decrease outputs of lipid peroxidation
and scavenge the free radicals in non-insulin dependent diabetic rats.
• Hematologic: Hemostatic mistura
of ipomoea balatas leaves, methods of preparation and use thereof —
a Jinshuye styptic plant preparation, an invention made from the extracts
of leaf and stems of Ipomoea batatas has qi and spleen invigorating
effects, cooling the blood and stopping bleeding. Such a composition
has the potential of use for ITP (idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura),
radiotherapy- and chemotherapy-induced thrombocytopenia.
• Root Crops as Antioxidant: A
2006 study of commonly consumed roots crops in the Philippines (Kamote,
Ipomoea batata; ubi, purple yam, Dioscorea
alata; cassava, Manihot esculenta; taro or gabi, Colocasia esculenta;
carrot, Daucus carota; yacon (Smallanthus sonchifolius) showed them
to be rich sources of phenolic compounds with antioxidant acitivity,
highest in sweet potato, followed by taro, potato, purple yam and lowest
in the carrot.
• Antioxidant: (1)
BIOACTIVE COMPOUNDS IN IPOMOEA BATATAS LEAVES:
Results suggest the total phenolic content was positively correlated
with radical scavenging activities of the sweet potato leaves.(2)
Purple Sweet Potato anthocyanins have antioxidative activity in vivo
as well as in vitro.
• Diabetes:
(1) Antidiabetic
activity of white skinned sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.)
in obese Zucker fatty rats: Results suggest the white skinned sweet
potato has antidiabetic activity and and improves glucose and lipid
metabolism by reducing insulin resistance. (2) Study to isolate the antidiabetic component
of white-skinned sweet potato suggested the active component to be an
acidic glycoprotein because it contained a protein and sugar and adsorbed
onto the QA column at pH 7.0.s
• Caiapo:
Study confirmed the beneficial effects of
Caiapo (a neutraceutical) on plasma glucose with a decrease in Hb A1c,
as well as cholesterol levels, in type 2 diabetes patients
• Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas
[L.] Lam ‘Tainong 57’) storage root mucilage with antioxidant
activities in vitro: Mucilage might contribute its antioxidant
activities against both hydoxyl and peroxyl radicals.
• Flavonoids:
Leaf extract study isolated five news compounds:
tiliroside, astragalin, rhamnocitrin, rhamnetin and kaempferol.
• Chitinases:
Study identified new chitinolytic enzymes
in sweet potato leaves. Chitinases catalyze the hydrolysis of chitin,
the main structural component of fungal walls and arthropod integuments.
Studies suggest it has other functions and has been proposed to play
a role in the defense against pathogens. Chitinases are also useful
in the production of biomedical and biotech products; used in the production
of chitooligosaccharides, glucosamines and GlcNAc. Other applications
are found in mosquito control and pathogenic plant fungi control.
• Antioxidant
/ Antiproliferative: Study demonstrated that the phytochemicals
in sweet potato may have significant antioxidant and anticancer activities.
The antioxidant activity was directly related to the total amount of
phenolics and flavonoids in the extracts. The additive roles of phytochemicals
may contribute to its ability in inhibiting tumor cell proliferation
in vitro.
• Antidiabetic
/ Adiponectin / Natural Insulin Sensitizer: Study confirms the beneficial effects of Caiapo on glucose and HbA1c in T2DM. The improvement in insulin sensitivity was accompanied by increased levels of adiponectin and a decrease in fibrinogen.
Availability
Wild-crafted.
Common market produce.
Caiapo, in the cybermarkets, an extract of
white sweet potatoes.
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