Were ancient plants more nutritious?
Cranfield University has been selected along with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, to join a new scientific consortium assembled by Unilever to identify nutrient-rich varieties of everyday plant-based foods like apples, bananas and onions which could potentially be used as ingredients for healthier products of tomorrow.
The project has been established to identify “pre-domesticated” varieties of plants that have been changed relatively little by breeding and might contain significantly higher levels of nutrients than the varieties currently used in food production.
Preliminary Unilever research found that an older variety of apple, the Egremont Russet, contained up to 10 times more of a phytonutrient than some modern varieties. The team hypothesise that this finding will be just one example of older plant varieties being richer in nutrients and fibre per fresh weight.
It is hoped that the research, which is co-funded by the government-backed Technology Strategy Board, will one day result in a new range of naturally healthy products which contain ingredients from carefully selected nutrient-rich varieties of plants that are little used in the food industry today.
As part of the three-year study, the researchers will also attempt to identify older and more nutritious varieties of mangoes and tea.
Dr Mark Berry, based at Unilever's R&D laboratories at Colworth Science Park, Bedford, is leading the consortium. He said: "The plants we eat today like fruits and vegetables have often been bred and selected on their weight-based yield per acre of land, and not necessarily on the nutrient content of the produce.
"This research looks to turn this approach on its head. Perhaps a better strategy for human health, not to mention sustainable agriculture, would be to buy plants not based on their weight, but on their nutrient content.
"It’s fascinating to contemplate that these pre-domesticated varieties have remained relatively unchanged for thousands of years. We’ll be going back in time to identify the plants from yesteryear that our ancient ancestors would have eaten - with a view to potentially reintroducing them into our diet."
Prof. Leon A. Terry, Cranfield University, said: “The new project brings together the expertise of three internationally recognised UK-based organisations with the collective view that a paradigm shift is required whereby ingredients are selected on their health promoting properties.
“Although fruit and vegetable-based products like smoothies are widely available, few contain the benefits of naturally high health-promoting phytochemical content from older cultivars. This is because the varietal selection of fruit and vegetables supplied by the fresh produce industry today has been increasingly centred on their products’ price, size, visual appearance, storage potential and yield.”
Prof. Monique Simmonds, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew said: “This project provides us with an exciting opportunity to investigate, with scientists at Cranfield University and Unilever, the chemistry of underutilised plants and older varieties of some of our favourite fruits.
“It enables us to increase our knowledge about the diversity of phytochemicals in these plants and whether their diversity has decreased during domestication. In an age when we are losing so much of our biodiversity due to changes in land use we can also evaluate the loss in phytochemical diversity that could have a negative impact on our health.”
The team will evaluate the most nutritious plants for use in designing foods that are health-giving not because they have been fortified but because the raw materials have been selected to be naturally rich in the nutrients that we have evolved to eat for over 2 million years.
Provided by Cranfield University
