Sweetpotato belongs to the morning glory family and has the following systemic classification:

Family Convolvulaceae
Tribe Ipomoeae
Genus Ipomoeae
Sub-genus Quamoclit
Section Batatas
Species Ipomoeae batatas (L.) Lam.

Sweetpotato is a perennial plant cultivated as an annual crop. It thrives in areas with warm
temperature and is commonly harvested 110-150 days after planting. Although known for its
tolerance to drought and its sensitivity to saturated soil condition, it requires sufficient water and
nutrients, to produce good yield.
History

Sweet potatoes are native to Central America and are one of the oldest vegetables known to man.
They have been consumed since prehistoric times as evidenced by sweet potato relics dating
back 10,000 years that have been discovered in Peruvian caves.

Christopher Columbus brought sweet potatoes to Europe after his first voyage to the New World
in 1492. By the 16th century, they were brought to the Philippines by Spanish explorers and to
Africa, India, Indonesia and southern Asia by the Portuguese. Around this same time, sweet
potatoes began to be cultivated in the southern United States, where they still remain a staple
food in the traditional cuisine. In the mid-20th century, the orange-fleshed sweet potato was
introduced to the United States and given the name "yam" to distinguish it from other sweet
potatoes. Sweet potatoes are a featured food in many Asian and Latin American cultures. Today,
the main commercial producers of sweet potatoes include China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan,
India and Uganda.

How to Select and Store

Choose sweet potatoes that are firm and do not have any cracks, bruises or soft spots. Avoid
those that are displayed in the refrigerated section of the produce department since cold
temperature negatively alters their taste.

Sweet potatoes should be stored in a cool, dark and well-ventilated place, where they will keep
fresh for up to ten days. Ideally, they should be kept out of the refrigerator in a cool, dry, dark
place not above 60˚F /15˚C, which would fit the characteristics of a root cellar. Yet since most
people don't have root cellars, we'd suggest just keeping your sweet potatoes loose (not in a
plastic bag, but if desired, a brown paper bag with multiple air holes punched in it will work) and
storing them in a cool, dark, and well-ventilated cupboard away from sources of excess heat (like
the stove).

Sweet Potato, Kumara, Louisiana Yam, Yellow Yam

(Ipomoea batatas -- Family Convolvulaceae)

Often called a yam, the sweet potato is a member of the Morning Glory family and not the Yam
family, but that is only the beginning of the confusion (see yams). Nor is the sweet potato related
to the common potato. The first Europeans to taste sweet potatoes were members of Columbus'
expedition to Haiti in 1492. Later explorers found many varieties under an assortment of local
names, but the name which stayed was the Haitian name of batata. This name was later
transferred to the ordinary potato, causing a confusion from which it never recovered. The first
record of the name sweet potato is found in the Oxford English Dictionary of 1775. Kumara is
the Polynesian name for an orangey-fleshed vegetable that looks like a sweet potato, and is a
tuberous relative of the morning glory (sweet potato). It has a rich nutty taste that works well
with other vegetables in stir fry.
The sweet potato is the cultivated descendant of a wild plant whose tuberous remains have been
found in a cave in Peru which was inhabited before 8000 BCE. It was cultivated during the last
centuries of BCE and well before the time of the Inca. It was a staple food all over tropical
America as far north as Mexico, as well as on the Caribbean islands. It is likely that, during the
13th century, the sweet potato made its way to the Easter Islands and Hawaii, and then on to
New Zealand in the next century. These dates have been taken from both Hawaiian and Maori
records. Before the Kon-Tiki expedition in 1947, when Thor Heyerdahl proved that voyages
across the ocean were deliberate ventures and not out of the realm of possibility, it had been
thought that the sweet potato must have been carried to the Pacific Islands by Europeans at a
much later date. With Heyerdahl's demonstration came the support for the fact that the ancient
Peruvian name for the tuber, kumar, is found with only minor variations (kumala, gumala,
umala) in several of the Pacific island languages.

Sixteenth century Spanish explorers took the sweet potato to the Philippines; and, from there,
Portuguese traders spread it throughout the East Indies and India. By the end of that century, it
had made its way into China, where a famine in Fujian province in 1593 caused the governor to
send out an expedition to the Philippines in search of food plants. The following year, the ships
returned with the sweet potato, which soon became a staple food in China; but it was not until
the 18th century that the sweet potato made its way into Japan. The Japanese names indicate its
route of travel from China to Okinawa. Polynesia began cultivating it before 1250, and New
Zealand, by the 14th century. Captain Cook and Sir Joseph Banks found the Maoris of the North
Island growing it when they landed in 1769.

In North America, sweet potatoes have long been grown by the Indians in Louisiana, where de
Soto found them in 1540, and also farther north in Georgia. By 1648, colonists in Virginia were
cultivating them. They were especially valued during the war against the British and the Civil
War as it grew quickly underground and, therefore, less vulnerable to destruction than surface
crops. It was likely slave traders who introduced it to Africa; and, ever since, it has been slowing
replacing the true yam as a major carbohydrate food in the tropical African diet. It reached
England via the Canary Islands and was the common potato during the Elizabethan years. At that
time, sweet potatoes were sold in crystallized slices with sea holly (eringo) as an aphrodisiac.
This was portrayed in such plays as "The Merry Wives of Windsor" ("Let the sky rain
potatoes...hail kissing comforts and snow eringoes"). The Empress Josephine introduced sweet
potatoes to her companions, who were soon serving them to stimulate the passion of their lovers.
But alas, those results are not recorded!

The sweet potato ranks fifth on the world's list of most important food staples after rice, wheat,
corn, and cassava, as it constitutes a substantial source of carbohydrate and carotene. More than
90% of the world's sweet potatoes are grown in Asia, and most are not orange-fleshed. The
moist, orangey ones are grown mainly in the US and Australia. Such orange-fleshed ones as
Beauregard, the primary commercial type, and the smaller Jewel and Garnet, are the main ones
grown for North American markets. They are sweet and moist but do have a pumpkiny flavour to
them. The sweet potatoes preferred outside the US and Canada are white-fleshed and not usually
soft or sweet; but they are more versatile than the orange types, fitting into meals like the
common potato. Oriental type sweet potatoes are those with various Asian names that the market
uses for rose-skinned, ivory-fleshed cultivars developed in the Far East. They fall between the
drier boniato types and the moist-fleshed whites. Boniato types are burly, dented, dark red-
coloured tubers that are well represented throughout Latin and Far Eastern markets. Boniato is
often regarded as a vegetable in its own right, although it is correctly a cultivar of the sweet
potato. It came to the US by way of Cuba and the Antilles, and has remained popular ever since.

Sweet potatoes are never eaten raw. Baking them is best as most of the nutrients are found just
under the skin. Sweet potatoes are high in vitamins A, C, and E, as well as B6, folate, potassium,
and iron. The deeper colour of the flesh indicates a higher content of carotene. However, sweet
potatoes provide only half as much protein as ordinary potatoes, but less starch and sugar. The
tubers do not store well, however. The Maori dry the whole root, while the Chinese slice and
sun-dry their tubers. Other countries may candy them. Sweet potatoes and their leaves contain
antibacterial and antifungal substances that have long been used in folk medicines.

There are hundreds of sweet potato varieties worldwide. Most are elongated and slightly pointed,
although some may be round. The skin may be white, yellow, red, purple, or brown; with the
flesh being white, yellow, orange, or orange-red. The two main categories are soft and firm,
indicating how they turn out after cooking. The flesh of the soft ones are more likely to be
orange, while the firm ones are white or yellow. In the US, the soft kinds are sometimes called
"yams". The most remarkable variety (Ipomoea leptophylla) is the manroot (man of the earth),
which grows in the western US and can literally be the size and shape of a full-grown man. It is
not very good to eat and most difficult to dig up so it is usually relegated for use as a famine
food.

Sweet potatoes are classified as three types: dry and mealy fleshed, soft and moist fleshed, and
coarse fleshed used as animal feed. White or pale types make good flour, having a chestnut-
caramel flavour. Yellow and orange varieties are sweet and watery.

Some varieties are as follows:

Centennial has bright copper-orange skin and deep orange flesh.
Jewel has copper-coloured tubers with moist white flesh.
Porto Rico Bush has deep orange sweet flesh, and is excellent for baking.
Tokatoka Gold is large, rounded and smooth textured. It is popular in New Zealand.
Vardaman does not vine, but it does produce golden-yellow skinned tubers with deep red-
orange flesh.

Sweet potato is the most productive carbohydrate producing crop, but it requires
less inputs and water compared to
rice, corn or potato. Its wide adaptation to various agroecologies render the crop as
human live saver during the
food shortage. Therefore, campaign need to be launched to popularize this crop as
an integral part in the daily
menu, in the forms of fresh cooked or processed products. Utilization of sweet
potato flour for making noodles,
cakes, cookies, dougnuts, etc could increase the acceptance and demand for sweet
potato. If total consumption of
sweet potato is increased by 60 kg/capita/year, it will reduce the demand for rice,
and thus lessen the burden for
importing rice. Sweet potato varieties with specific tuber characteristics for various
usages are available.