Over the past decade there has been a resurgence of interest in
growing fruit and vegetables in the garden and on the allotment. Part
of the driving force behind this is an increased awareness of the
health benefits that can be derived from fruit and vegetables in the
diet. The 'five helpings a day' dictum reflects the correlation
between a regular consumption of fruit and vegetables and a reduced
incidence of, for example, cardiovascular disease and some cancers.
Growing your own vegetables provides the opportunity to harvest them
at their peak, to minimize the time for post-harvest deterioration
prior to consumption and to reduce their 'food miles'. It also
provides an opportunity to grow interesting and less common cultivars.
The combination of economic advantages and recreational factors add to
the pleasure of growing fruit and vegetables.
This book covers the natural products that have been identified in
common 'home-grown' fruit and vegetables and which contribute to their
organoleptic and beneficial properties. Over the last fifty years the
immense advances in separation methods and spectroscopic techniques
for structure elucidation have led to the identification of a wide
range of natural products in fruit and vegetables. Not only have many
of their beneficial properties been recognized but also their
ecological roles in the development of plants have been identified.
The functional role of many of these natural products is to mediate
the balance between an organism and its environment in terms of
microbial, herbivore or plant to plant interactions.
The book is aimed at readers with a chemical background who wish to
know a little more about the natural products that they are eating,
their beneficial effects, and the roles that these compounds have in
nature. Developments in the understanding of the ecological and
beneficial chemistry of fruit and vegetables have made the exploration
of their chemical diversity a fascinating and expanding area of
natural product chemistry and readers will obtain some 'taste' for
this chemistry from the book. It develops in more detail the relevant
sections from the earlier RSC book 'Chemistry in the Garden'.
The book begins with an outline of the major groups of compound that
are found in fruit and vegetables. This is followed by a description
of aspects of environmental chemistry that contribute to the
successful cultivation of these crops. Subsequent chapters deal with
individual plants which are grouped in terms of the part of the plant,
roots, bulbs and stems, leaves, seeds, that are used for food. The
final chapters deal with fruit and herbs. The epilogue considers some
general aspects of ecological chemistry and climatic stress which may,
in the future, affect the growth of fruit and vegetables in the garden
particularly in the context of potential climate changes. The book
concludes with a section on further reading, a glossary of terms used
in plant chemistry and a list of the common fruit and vegetables
grouped in their plant families.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781782625834
Publisert
2016
Utgave
1. utgave
Utgiver
Vendor
Royal Society of Chemistry
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter