Learning objectives
The course will give to the students information concerning production of herbaceous crops and in farm transformation of the products and fruits, both for fresh consumption and for storage and industrial transformation.
Course unit content
The course of Herbaceous Food Plants deals with the plants that are at the basis of human nutrition, including those of warm environments, with special reference to species and productions object of food technologies. The studied species are:
Cereals: Wheat, Rice, Maize, Barley, Sorghum.
Grain legumes: Soybean, Bean, Peanut, Pea, Faba.
Starch plants: Potato, Cassava, Sweet potato, Yam.
Vegetables: Tomato, Onion, Cabbage, Lettuce, Carrot, Mushrooms, etc.
Sugar plants :Sugarcane, Sugar beet.
Oil plants: Sunflower, Sesame, Canola (oilseed rape), Castor.
For each species the considered aspects are:
Botany -morphology, anatomy, physiology of food plants, with special reference to the parts utilised as food, and to the processes leading to their formation on the plant;
Genetics - Origin and distribution of species, subspecies and cultivars, and their characters of hardiness and quality;
Cultivation - Prevailing agricultural techniques, and their effects on quantity and quality of productions;
Transformation and storage - In farm or site techniques adopted for conditioning and preserving products.
Bibliography
Baldoni R., Giardini L., 2000 - Coltivazioni erbacee.Patron, Bologna (vol. I e II)
Rehm S., Espig G., 1997 - La coltivazione delle piante tropicali e subtropicali. Edagricole, Bologna
Rinallo C., 2005 - Botanica delle piante alimentari. Piccin.