Purple Sweet Potatoes Subject of K-State Cancer Researcher's Work in Human Nutrition

Monday November 22, 2010

PURPLE SWEET POTATOES TURN PIE INTO POSSIBLE CANCER-FIGHTING FOOD

Nutrition scientists at Kansas State University could be accused of carrying Purple Pride to extremes. But the purple sweet potato pies they created for Thanksgiving were a practical application of research.

The story of Purple Pride Sweet Potato Pie starts with sweet potato breeder Ted Carey, who was a horticulture professor at K-State before he moved to Ghana to work with the International Potato Center.

At K-State, Carey got seeds from purple sweet potato parent plants from the potato center’s germplasma bank in Peru. He stuck the seeds in fertile Kansas soil. When they grew, he cloned the most colorful ones.

Enter George Wang, research scientist in K-State’s department of human nutrition.

Read the whole story from K-State News Services.