State of the Art in Amaranth Research, Food Utilization and Use in Development
Wednesday August 3rd Registration at Tennessee State University open / badges, bags and information kit
2:00 Opening conversations and supply setup
3:00 Brief self-introductions by everyone
4:00 Coffee / Tea Break
4:30 Meeting of Amaranth Board
5:30 Break for dinner
6:00 Travel to restaurants (Millenium shuttle)
Thursday August 4th AITC information center
8:30 Breakfast buffet .. registration / badges, bags and information kits
9:00 Introduction to Conference by Ms. Mary Beth Wilson, Amaranth Institute President; and Dr. Matthew Blair, Local organizer
9:30 Plenary Talk 1: David Brenner Iowa State University, USA
10:00 Plenary Talk 2: Dr. Suba Bangalore Institute of Bioinformatics, India
10:30 Plenary Talk 3: Dr. Rick Jellen or Jeffrey Maughan Bringham Young University, Utah, USA
11:00 Plenary talk 5: Dr. Amy Lawton Raugh Clemson University, South Carolina, USA
11:30 Laboratory Tour of Biotechnology Building SNP marker demonstration
12:00 Lunch on site or in Westbrook Farrell Building; Box lunches
1:30 Food Session 1: Jonathan Walters NuWorld Foods, Chicago, Illinois, USA
2:00 Food Session 2: Dr. Carmen Jacinto INIAFAP – Texcoco, Mexico
2:30 Development session 1: Elibakari Kisombo, Tanzania
3:00 Development session 2: Lillian Machivenyika, Zimbabwe
3:30 Development Session 3: Pete Noll, Chiapas, Mexico
4:00 Development Session 4: Mulunesh Jebessa, Ethiopia
4:30 Other international speakers
5:00 Coffea/tea break (Amaranth Popping); Food session continued; Possibility of other cooking demonstrations .. five test kitchens in Family and Consumer Sciences (Dr. Chiquita Briley)
6:30 Campus Tour
7:00 Sit Down Dinner on site or in Westbrook Farrell Building; Amaranth Games/Awards
Friday August 5th Agricultural Education Building or New TSU Pavilion
8:30 Breakfast buffet
9:00 Germplasm 1: Dr. Rashmi Yadav National Genebank, Pusa, India
9:15 Germplasm 2a USA: Dr. Rob Myers Univ. Of Missouri
9:30 Germplasm 2b USA: Dr. Sakiko Okumoto Virginia Tech USA
9:45 Germplasm 3a Africa: Dr. Mildred Osei Univ. of Hannover
10:00 Germplasm 3b Asia: Dr. Junfeng Wang Shandong Genebank, Jinan City, China
10:15 Germplasm 4 Latin America: Bolivia with Ania Madalinska or Mexico with TBD
10:30 Germplasm 5: TSU Ranjita Thapa
10:45 Germplasm 6: TSU Mawel Jok
11:00 Germplasm 7: TSU Matthew Edwards
11:15 Germplasm 8: TSU Raheem Kosoko
11:30 Germplasm 9: TSU Matthew Blair with farm and greenhouse tour
12:30 Lunch
2:00 Wrap-Up Session
2:30 Closure
3:00 Amaranth Institute Conference for 2017
4:00 Tour of the Town .. Music City .. Nashville Lights
Presentations given at State of the Art in Amaranth Research, Food Utilization and Use in Development.
Advances in amaranth genomics Dr. Jeff Maughan
Genetics of adaption in Amaranthus Dr. Amy Lawton-Rauh
Phenotypic and genotypic evaluation of Amaranth collections Ranjita Thapa
Establishing genetics tools for Amaranthus palmeri Dr. Sakiko Okumoto
Introducing amaranth to consumers: challenges and opportunities Joshua Aisen
Value of amaranth to food systems in Mexico Ing. Uriel Molotla and Jose Arturo Diaz Mata
Development of grain amaranth in Tanzania Elibariki Kisimbo
Amaranth grain and tea promotion in Zimbabwe Lillian Machivenyika
Development of grain amaranth in Ethiopia Mulunesh Jebessa
Grain Amaranths is a pseudo cereal and C4 dicotyledonous herbaceous plant with high photosynthetic efficiency. The crop thrives in adverse climatic conditions and has the potential to boost food security in a climate change scenario. The grains provide human food while the leaves serve as vegetables and forage for animals. Amaranths seeds are rich in protein, minerals (such as calcium, Iron and magnesium). Medicinally, regular consumption of Amaranths reduces blood pressure, cholesterol level and improves antioxidant status.
To evaluate the grain yield potential of grain Amaranths, three novel semi-dwarf accessions (namely, DB 2003878, DB 2003833 and DB 2010314) sourced from Iowa State University were planted at the Tennessee state university research station, Nashville, Tennessee State, USA during the summer seasons of 2015 and 2016. In both seasons, seeds were nursed on trays in the glasshouse and then transplanted to field after three weeks.
The experiment was conducted using randomized complete block design (RCBD) with four replications per accession. Data was collected on different morphological traits (growth and yield components of the plant) and subjected to analysis of variances (ANOVA) using STATISTICA software version 10.
The results revealed significant differences (P≤0.05) among the tested accessions in all the growth characters measured. Growth and yield related parameters were greater in accession DB 2003878 relative to DB 2003833 and DB 2010314. Thus, accession DB 2003878 produced higher grain yield (4712.97 kg/ha) when compared to accessions DB 2003833 (1113.08 kg/ha) and DB 2010314 (1110.06 kg/ha). Based on these findings, accession DB 2003878 which produced relatively higher grain yield, is recommended for breeding purposed aimed at increasing grain production in Amaranths.
Damba Yahaya, Ranjita Thapa and Matthew Blair, Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Tennessee State University, Nashville, TN
Downloadable documents: Yield Potential of Semi-Dwarf Grain Amaranths
A global round-up of amaranth research. Presented at the 2016 Amaranth Institute Conference held in Nashville, Tennessee.
David M. Brenner, North Central Regional Plant Introduction StationDepartment of Agronomy, Iowa State UniversityFunded by Hatch Act Regional Project NC7
Downloadable documents: Amaranthus Resarch Trends
Marketing Ancient Grains as Modern Ingredients; Increasing Opportunity through Effective Application
Amaranth: A source of complete protein, amaranth contains all of the essential amino acids
including lysine. Amaranth is also an excellent source of fiber, magnesium, iron and
phosphorus; and a good source of polyunsaturated fatty acids and calcium. It is also
the only grain documented to contain Vitamin C.
Quinoa: An excellent source of dietary fiber as well as a good source of phosphorus an iron,
quinoa is attractive to vegans and vegetarians because it contains all of the essential
amino acids, making it a complete protein. Quinoa is easy to digest, ranks lower on the
Glycemic Index and contains valuable amounts of heart-healthy monounsaturated fats.
Sorghum: Compared to other grains, sorghum flavor is less distinguishable than corn and
provides better texture than rice. Sorghum is high in fiber, iron, and protein, making it
a staple starch in much of the developing world.
Teff: The world’s tiniest grain (1/100th the size of a kernel of wheat) teff is a fast-cooking,
nutritional powerhouse. An annual grass native to Ethiopia, teff is rich in dietary fiber
and iron. The grain has a mildly sweet flavor despite its slightly sour taste when
fermented for use in injera bread.
Millet: More than 10,000 years ago, millet was actually Asia’s staple grain. High in
antioxidants and magnesium, research suggests it may help prevent and manage high
blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes. Millet is quick cooking, and can be fluffed
like rice, made creamy like mashed potatoes, and is ideal for gluten-free flatbreads.
NuWorld Foods
Downloadable documents: Ancient Grains: From Field to Mainstream Market
Present Research Focus
• Molecular marker studies of new crops (amaranth as one of the pseudocereals).
• Genes for daptation to climate change (drought and heat tolerance).
• Training of students and visiting researchers from USA, Bangladesh, China, Colombia, Ghana, Kenya, Ethiopia, Nepal and South Sudan.
Dr. Mathew Blair, Tennessee State University
Downloadable documents: Amaranth Collaborations at TSU
Determination of Growing Capability and Nutritional Contents of Grain Amaranth for Food Security and Healthy Living in Nigeria
Grain amaranth has multiple benefits as complementary and supplementary food and medicine respectively. The study focused on determining the nutritional and medicinal properties of grain amaranth cultivar obtained from REAP in Kenya which was propagated in Kwara State, Nigeria; harvested after 65 days; and prepared as samples for the study. Standard procedures of Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC), Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer, Flame Photometer, and Spectrophotometer. were used to determine the macro/micronutrients in the grains.
Results revealed that the grains contained good source of protein, lipid, Iron-66 mg/100g, Zinc-11.34 mg/100g, Calcium-78.7 mg/100g, Manganese-37.1 mg/100g, Magnesium-2845 mg/100g, Potassium-400 mg/100g; Thiamine-0.2756 mg (%), Riboflavin-0.734 mg (%) and Niacin-1.042. Zinc is reported to contribute to boosting the immune system of people with AIDS and iron is required by enzymes for oxygen metabolism that reduces anemia. Multi-benefits of amaranth range from improved well-being to recovery of severely malnourished children; increased body mass index of people formerly wasted by HIV/AIDS; environmental adaptability, yield, and recipes development.
More research efforts are needed on growing, inclusion in diets, consumer behavior and market acceptability of amaranth based products in order to contribute to the efforts of addressing food security, poverty reduction, nutritional, and medicinal needs of vulnerable communities.
Abolaji, G.T.1 Olooto, F. M.1 Ogundele, D. T..2 and Williams, F. E.3
1 Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension Service, College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Kwara State University, Malete, Nigeria
2 Department of Chemical, Geological and Physical Sciences Chemistry Unit, Kwara State University, Malete, Nigeria
3 Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacy Practice, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria.
Downloadable documents: PDF of full paper Growing Capability and Nutritional Contents of Grain Amaranth
PDF of presentation Food Security and Healthy Living in Nigeria
Grain Amaranth is a grain and forage crop. Not only is the high-quality of livestock forage but poultry is also high quality healthy raw food grain.Early 1980s two researchers, Yue Shaoxian and Sun Hongliang who led China’s first grain amaranth team conduct comprehensive studies of the crop and organize several conferences in China.1990 China had reached status as one of the highest amaranth producers in the world in terms of acreage and production.1995 Baicheng grain amaranth team started to promote the industrialization and development, including breeding of new varieties, high yield cultivation, feeding utilization, product processing, college students enterprising and higher demonstration and extension value and so on. We have established cooperative development relationship with the enterprises of amaranth.At present, the research of amaranth in Jilin province is one of the highest in China.
Prof. Cheng Jinzhi Life Sciences, Baicheng Normal University
Downloadable documents:
PDF of presentation Grain Amaranth in China: Nearly two of decades development