Colocasia Esculenta

GABI or TARO

* Colocasia esculenta

 Also called elephant's ear, eddy root, tara, eddoe, tarrow

 Belongs to family Araceae

 Native to Southeast Asia

 Important crop in the Philippines

 Grown for its edible starchy corm and its edible leaf

 a perennial long-stalked herbaceous plant with huge leaves, growing up to 30-150 centimeters and bears a short underground stem called a corm, where the plant stores starch.

 Planted in places where water is abundant

 For maximum yields, the base of the plant must be under water

 The crop attains maturity within six to twelve months after planting in dry-land cultivation and twelve to fifteen months for wetland cultivation

 It is harvested when there is a decline in height and yellowing of the leaves

 Harvested by loosening the soil around the corm and pulling it by grabbing the base of the petiole

 Inedible when raw due to toxic calcium oxalate crystals

 Toxins are minimized by cooking or steeping the corm overnight

in water or even eating taro with milk or calcium rich foods

 corms are roasted, baked or boiled

 natural sugars give a sweet nutty flavour

 starch is easily digestible and grains are fine and small- often used for baby food

 leaves are a good source of vitamins A and C and contain more protein than the corms

NUTRITIONAL VALUE

* young leaves are rich in Vitamin C

* corms are rich in starch composed of amylase (28%) and amylopectin (72%), thiamine (vitamin B1), riboflavin (vitamin B2) and minerals, has considerable amount of proteins.

Composition of the Taro Corm and Leaf

* The main economic parts of the taro plant are: the corms and cormels, as well as the leaves.

* The fresh corm has about two-thirds water and 13-29% carbohydrate.

* The starch itself is about four fifths amylopectin and one-fifth amylose. The amylopectin has 22 glucose units per molecule, while the amylose has 490 glucose units per molecule.

* The starch grains are small and therefore easily digestible. This factor makes taro suitable as a specialty food for allergic infants and persons with alimentary disorders. However, the smallness of the starch grains makes taro less suitable as a source of industrial starch. The starch in the corm is more concentrated at the corm base than at the corm apex.

* Taro contains about 7% protein on a dry weight basis. This is more than yam, cassava or sweet potato. The protein fraction is low in histidine, lysine, isoleucine, tryptophan, and methionine, but otherwise rich in all the other essential amino acids.

* The protein content of the corm is higher towards the corm's periphery than towards its centre. This implies that care should be taken when peeling the corm; otherwise a disproportionate amount of the protein is lost in the peel.

Table 3. Proximate Composition of the Taro Corm on a Fresh Weight Basis

Component Content

Moisture 63-85%

Carbohydrate (mostly starch) 13-29%

Protein 1.4-3.0%

Fat 0.16-0.36%

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