Overview

The BioPotato Network includes 32 scientists from various disciplines representing around 12 institutions from government, universities and industry from across Canada. The network will focus on developing bioproducts for health and the environment. This large network will also train a new generation of scientists in an exciting multidisciplinary environment.

Our understanding of the relationship between food and health has increased interest in functional foods and nutraceuticals. These are foods and extracts that have health benefits beyond providing basic nutrition. Potato varieties that are consumed today are mostly white in color. However, potatoes with skins and flesh that are red, purple, yellow and orange contain high levels of bioactive compounds. The Biopotato Network will explore how potato bioactive compounds can be extracted and what kind of benefits they provide to a number of health conditions including neurodegenerative diseases, stroke, auto-immune disorders, diabetes, allergies, infections, heart disease and obesity-related diseases. New potato varieties with high levels of beneficial bioactive compounds will be developed through breeding. Another kind of functional food product from potato will address dietary changes prescribed for the prevention and management of conditions such as type-2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, obesity and certain cancers. These changes include decreasing sugar and starch and increasing fibre intake. Through breeding and processing, potatoes will be developed in the BioPotato network to have modified starches that are less digestible and increased fibre content. One goal of the BioPotato Network is to provide innovative potato-based health products for consumers.

Potato tubers are a good source of starch and the research in BioPotato network will contribute to development of value-added potato starch products. The versatile starch molecule can be chemically and/or physically modified for use in making pills and tablets for the pharmaceutical industry resistant starch in functional foods, gums in food additives and a number of other products. A particularly attractive application of potato starch is for making bioplastics. Bioplastic is a new generation of material that is able to reduce environmental impact by being biodegraded through the action of living organisms while functioning like traditional plastic. In addition starch-based bioplastics are derived from renewable agricultural sources as opposed to non-renewable petroleum sources for traditional plastics. Starch based polymers and/or blends have been used to produce biodegradable plastics in trash bags, mulch films and containers for packaging. The expertise of the BioPotato Network will be used to develop potato based bioplastic products including starch based bioplastic and fibre-based bioplastic for film, foam, nursery pots, tablewares and packaging applications.

Potato is a domesticated species that is part of the Solanum genus, a large group of tuber bearing plants. Other related wild Solunum species contain in their foliage many useful chemical compounds. Some Solanum species are resistant to the main insect pest in potato, the Colorado potato beetle. Chemicals that are toxic to the beetle or prevent it from feeding on resistant species can be used to develop botanical insecticide and biopesticide that are safer for health and the environment. Wild Solanum are hard to grow but can be domesticated through crossing with the cultivated potato. These hybrids can provide an agricultural source for botanical insecticides and biopesticides.