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As noted, the types to be found are amazingly varied. A start on this has been made already, and seeds of several different types are housed in the vaults of international seedbanks. But local initiatives can still do much to gather the germplasm in the exceptionally diverse and dispersed habitats, not so much to conserve it but to get the best into wider use. Another thing is to establish an eggplant database, into which research information could be incorporated, and subsequently disseminated to farmers, researchers, and interested amateur gardeners.

Food Technology In the advancement of this neglected resource, there are many things to capture the interest of food technologists. For one, African eggplant should be tested as a substitute in recipes developed to exquisite perfection for its famous Asia-born counterpart in countries such as Greece and Turkey. For another, although no specific mention of toxicity has been reported, this species belongs to a genus some of whose many members have poisonous leaves and sometimes also unhealthy fruits.

For a third, the whole issue of post-harvest handling of the fruits deserves to be analyzed and formalized. Horticultural Development The species can be considered an almost-blank agronomic slate, and almost any studies relating to its production—from seeding depth to thinning the fruits to increase their size—merit clarification. Horticultural investigations are especially needed to determine the field conditions that promote optimal growth and maximal harvests. There is a need to create or identify varieties better adapted to specific growing conditions.

In addition, there is potential to create varieties with fruits of even more shapes, colors, and tastes. That, in turn, will lift its commercial value and profile. For instance, genetic maps of potato, tomato, peppers, and the common eggplant are available. Markers common to African garden eggs and those well-mapped Solanaceae should be identified.

Such markers should allow the molecular tagging of agronomic traits and provide powerful tools for breeding whole new worlds of African eggplants. Genes for Improving Other Crops Because of their genetic closeness to major global crops in the Solanaceae, African eggplants may also provide powerful tools to the breeders of such things as tomato, potato, and eggplant.

They contain several traits potentially useful in improving those crops. These include resistance to:. In addition, the species has been reported as showing molluscicidal activity, and may prove useful in controlling garden snails, slugs, or maybe even the water snails that harbor lifestages of the schistosomiasis parasite. Moreover, it has been claimed that this crop serves as an alternative host for a variety of pests, bacteria, and fungi that affect a number of commercial crops.

African eggplants might therefore be used to lure away the pests.

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As noted earlier, there are indications that African eggplant is resistant to soil-borne diseases caused by the very serious pathogens, Fusarium oxysporum and Verticillium dahliae. Perhaps it has a potential to be used as a way to avoid soil sickness. New Locations Should the outside world try African eggplants? The crop already grows in Brazil, and its potential for other tropical countries is high. It may even prove successful in Mediterranean nations. Those are also the ones that rely on eggplant, and they may find the extra drought-tolerance of the African version notably valuable.

Fungitoxic compounds from the roots of the eggplant stock. The biologically active compounds have been identified as several kinds of sesquiterpenes. Exports and Marketing Within Europe and the United States, there is a strong tendency toward horticultural diversification, not only in the size, shape, color and taste of the well-known fruits and vegetables, but also vegetables that are new to the markets.

Taxonomic Clarification Solanum taxonomy has been clarified and resolved so often that outsiders have almost lost faith. African eggplants offer a world of possibilities for overcoming taxonomic difficulties in this important family because they lie somewhere among potato, tomato, peppers, and the common eggplant.

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DNA and other sophisticated evidence might clarify and resolve the uncertainties all over again. Synonyms Solanum gilo Raddi, Solanum olivare Paill. In the vegetative stage, a plant of the Gilo Group looks like a common eggplant i. It is a fairly woody deciduous annual, or occasionally perennial, herb up to cm tall.

It is not prickly. Other possible synonyms are Solanum integrifolium Poiret, Solanum integrifolium Poiret var. Features distinguishing it from the other species are the small, white, star-shaped flowers. In addition, the calyces are never long and the inflorescence has a short 1 cm rachis.

The fruits are cm in diameter, varying in shape from ellipsoid to almost round. They contain locules and are normally firmly attached to thick fruit stalks that turn downwards. The flowers are pollinated by large bees. Within Africa The plant occurs in virtually all of sub-Saharan Africa, but is less well known in maybe absent from South Africa and Madagascar. Beyond Africa Centuries ago, the plant was taken to Brazil, probably with the slave trade. Rainfall mm or more. The plants thrive during the rainy seasons in the tropics.

Only certain, usually large-bodied bees like carpenter bees are able to do this; honeybees cannot buzz-pollinate. Soil An easily grown plant, it succeeds in most soils. Nonetheless, it does best in soils of high fertility, especially those high in nitrogen and phosphorus. Sandy loam to friable clay soils with a pH range of 5. Gboma eggplant The present chapter has focused on the gilo eggplant, Solanum aethiopicum , but it might well have dealt with this gboma eggplant, Solanum macrocarpon.

The two are similar in all but a few details of the flowers and leaf hairs. Virtually everything said in this chapter is true also for the gboma eggplant.


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This is another species that might be more widely and more intensively cultivated than at present. It is perennial, glabrous, and shrubby. Originally from tropical and equatorial Africa, but widely introduced into Southeast Asia, this species produces a small fruit similar to the eggplant.

The fruits may be eaten when very small, often raw, but in many places the plant is grown chiefly for its edible leaves. The leaves of these two wayside plants, along with many other Solanum species, such as S. Close cousins There are, as noted, relatively distinct groups within the species Solanum aethiopicum. This has fairly small, subspherical fruits and small glabrous leaves.

Only the leaf is used the fruits being too bitter. The species exists in different forms, which were in the past described as about 20 species. Recent studies have shown that all these plants are highly interfertile, and better treated as one species, having arisen by domestication from a single wild progenitor: Four main groups of cultivars of Solanum aethiopicum , with different uses, are now recognized: The first three are native to Africa; the fourth grows in Europe, and has inedible fruits. This has much-lobed glabrous fruits that are pumpkin-shaped and only slightly bitter.

When ripe, they are light green to red-orange—very ornamental and unusual looking with lots of bumps. Both leaves and fruits are eaten. The species is restricted to the sub-Sahelian region from Senegal to the top of Nigeria—a coverage reflecting that of the old Mali Empire. This report is the second in a series of three evaluating underexploited African plant resources that could help broaden and secure Africa's food supply.

The volume describes the characteristics of 18 little-known indigenous African vegetables including tubers and legumes that have potential as food- and cash-crops but are typically overlooked by scientists and policymakers and in the world at large. The book assesses the potential of each vegetable to help overcome malnutrition, boost food security, foster rural development, and create sustainable landcare in Africa. Each species is described in a separate chapter, based on information gathered from and verified by a pool of experts throughout the world.

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Do you enjoy reading reports from the Academies online for free? Sign up for email notifications and we'll let you know about new publications in your areas of interest when they're released. Lost Crops of Africa: Looking for other ways to read this? The National Academies Press. Page Share Cite. Also known as brinjal or aubergine. And they are 11 This is also true of the best-known eggplant, which similarly discolors upon contact with the air.

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