Cassava Research Paper

Cassava (manihot esculents, creantz), variously designated as manioc, yucca or tapioca is a native to south America and southern and western Mexico, Presumable Eastern Brazil. It was one of the first crops to be domesticated and there is archeological evidence that it was grown in Peru 4, 000 years ago and in Mexico 2, 000 years ago. From stem cuttings, the plant produces 5 to 10 very fleshy adventitious roots up to 15 centimeters in diameter. Young roots may have 30 – 35% starches by weight but very little fat or protein.

Cassava is adapted to the zone within latitudes 30 north and south of the equator, at elevations of not more than 2000m above sea level, in temperatures ranging from 18 to 25Oc to rainfall of 50 to 5000mm annually and to

Native Americans learned that the deadly bitter principles could be removed by boiling or squeezing. Some cultivars lack HCN (sweet cassava makasera). They have less than 50ppm of cyanide. Sweet cassava is widely used and requires no special detoxification process. It can be eaten raw, sun dried, kiln dried or cooked.

Cynogenic glycoside levels in cassava root vary widely and can accumulate to concentrations as high as 500mg / kg (Mamahon, 1995) cyanogenic glycosides varies with the part of the plant, its age, variety and environmental conditions such as soil, moisture, temperature etc. Therefore cynogenic glycoside levels in cassava must be qualified in order to assess bitterness or the cynogenic potential of cassava varieties. Linamarase enzymes isolated from the cassava peel are currently applied as diagnostic reagents in the screening of cassava varieties for

The amount of cyanogenic glucosides vary with the part of the plant, its age, variety, and environment conditions such as soil, moisture, temperature etc. certain varieties of cassava have long been designated as sweet or bitter, purportedly in relation to their cyanogenic glucoside content the sweet varieties are supposed to be much lower in HCN content than the bitter varieties. However, results of chemical analysis of various parts of the cassava plant at different stages of development indicate that at times no significant differences exists between comparable parts of sweet and bitter varieties. Nartey (13) observed that the phelloderm of sweet varieties may contain cyanogenic glucoside while the fleshy cortex may contain none. Also the seeds of sweet varieties contain no HCN, though seeds of bitter ones