Latin-American Seeds: Agronomic, Processing and Health Aspects (Food Biotechnology and Engineering)

In the last few years, the Latin-American seeds have gained increased importance (also due to the increased demand for gluten-free foods). Worldwide demand for Latin-American seeds and grains has risen in a high proportion. In parallel, seeds and grains' research from this region in all relevant fields has been intensified. Latin-American Seeds: Agronomic, Processing and Health Aspects summarizes the recent research on Latin-American crops regarding agronomic and botanical characteristics, composition, structure, use, production, technology, and impact on human health.

Latin-American cultivars studied here are included in the groups of cereals, pseudo-cereals, oilseeds, and legumes that are used in a great variety of innovative and traditional foods. The main crops that are covered in this book are Latin-American maize (Zea mays), amaranth (Amaranthus spp), quinoa (Chenopodium spp), kañiwa (Chenopodium pallidicaule), chia (Salvia hispanica), sacha inchi (Plukenetia volubilis) and legumes such as black turtle and common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) and tarwi (Lupinus mutabilis).

Key Features:

• Contains updated information about recent research works on Latin-American crops
• Includes a variety of Latin-American plant species that are used in a great variety of innovative and traditional foods
• Addresses a wide range of topics related to agronomy, plant physiology, and nutritional and technological properties, processing, fractionation and development of new products for human health

Claudia M. Haros, PhD, graduated as a Bachelor of Chemistry from the School of Exact and Natural Sciences, University of Buenos Aires (UBA), Argentina in 1990. She earned an MSc in Bromatology and Food Technology (1992); and an MSc in Biology Analysis (1997) from UBA. She is PhD in Chemistry (UBA-1999). From 1991-2003, she worked as university professor in the Organic Chemistry Department, Food Science and Technology Area of UBA. From 1991-1999 she was Research Assistant in the Cereals and Oilseeds Group, Department of Industrial Chemistry, UBA. Later, from 2000-2002 she worked in Spain as a visiting professor in the Cereal Group of the Institute of Agrochemistry and Food Technology (IATA) in Valencia. In 2003, she was a postdoc fellow at the Department of Food Microbiology, Institute of Animal Reproduction and Food Research (CENEXFOOD-EU), Polish Academy of Science, Olsztyn, Poland. From 2003-2004 she received an award for working with Prof. Sandberg of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Life Science Division, University of Chalmers, Gothenburg, Sweden. In 2005 she became an Associate Researcher of the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) in the framework of a Ramón y Cajal Programme. Since 2008 she is a Senior Scientist at CSIC and continues her investigation in the Cereal Group, Department of Food Science of IATA. Since the early stages of her career, she was mainly engaged in research in respect to Cereal Science and Technology field. The major theme in Dr. Haros's research is the utilization of different strategies to improve nutritional and/or functional value of cereals, their ingredients and products, with the emphasis on starch, minerals and proteins. These strategies include use different physical, biochemical or biological treatments during milling cereal process; development new cereal by-products by including novel ingredients; use new starter phytase producers for regulating content and composition of lower myo-inositol phosphates in food with clear nutritional and health benefits. The isolation of chemical components of cereals/pseudocereals such as starches, proteins, fibres or oils by different processes such as dry milling, wet milling, germ cold pressing, among others, is one of the main topic of the Dr. Haros’s career. Her investigations include the determination of bioaccessibility/bioavailability of minerals, glycaemic index and nutrient inputs according to Dietary Reference Intakes/Adequate Intakes of nutrients. The ultimate objective is to identify dietetic solutions and innovations to prevent diseases and to improve consumers’ well-being and health. She was the Leader of the International Chia-Link Network (2015-2021) (www.chialink.es/) and from 2018 is the Leader of la ValSe-Food Group (Iberoamerican Valuable Seeds-Food, with the participation of Research Groups/Companies from 12 countries from Iberoamerican (www.cyted.org/es/valse_food). She has been involved in numerous National (Argentina, Chile, Spain, Poland and Sweden), European and International research projects related to cereals as participant or leader. She developed an extensive activity in transferring knowledge through a close cooperation with stakeholders mainly dealing with the inclusion of cereals/pseudocereals/ancients crops in the human diet through their characterization and utilization to develop innovative and sensory accepted cereal-based products. Today she belongs to the International Board of the Latam Food Innovation Hub to do diffusion of her research activities in a Business Forum (www.latamfoodinnovationhub.com/).

María Reguera, PhD, graduated as Bachelor of Environmental Sciences and completed her PhD in Plant Biology at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), earning the Doctoral Excellence Award 2009. This work contributed to the understanding of the role of boron in symbiotic nitrogen fixation in legumes. Later, her postdocs at the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of California Davis (UCD) (2010-2014) and as Juan de la Cierva Fellow (2015-2017) at the Department of Biology at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM, Madrid, Spain) focused on the impact of abiotic stress on mineral nutrition in crops.. She also participated as Lecturer in UCD undergraduate courses and taught different post-graduate courses. As Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral fellow at UAM (Madrid, Spain) (2015-2017) she led different research lines and was the PI of a competitive funded international project working on quinoa studying the impact of the agroecological conditions on the nutritional properties of seeds. Currently, she holds a non-permanent assistant professor position as Ramon y Cajal Fellow at UAM (Madrid, Spain) leading, as PI, a research line studying the biological mechanisms underlying plant responses to changing environmental conditions and their impact on seed quality in quinoa and other emerging crops while she keeps working on plant boron nutrition. She maintains an active collaboration with different international and national groups and with entities of the private sector contributing actively to conferences (national and international). She has organized two International Scientific Meetings on Quinoa, she participates in I+D evaluation activities (as a referee of high impact factor journals and as a member of several international research committees, including the European Commission), to outreach activities and she has also combined her research work with an intense teaching and mentoring activity. Altogether, her research experience, that includes the publication of 36 scientific articles in international peer-reviewed journals in Plant Science and 6 book chapters, gives evidence of her knowledge working on a diversity of crops and plant model systems, her achievements in understanding the regulation of key agronomic traits (including grain yield or seed quality under various abiotic stresses) and she has proven results extending basic research findings on applied agronomic research.

Norma Sammán, PhD, is Chemistry Engineer, Doctor in Food Technology, and Full Professor at the National Universities of Jujuy and Tucumán. She has extensive experience in the chemical, nutritional and functional characterization of food and the development of new food products. She reached important achievements in the academic, research and transfer fields. Since 1999 she is a member of the Regional Academic Committee of the Doctorate in Network in Food Science and Technology and has contributed to the training of human resources through the development of national and international courses and directing more than 20 Doctoral theses. She was Director of the Jujuy Research and Transfer Center (CIT Jujuy) UNJu-CONICET (2012-2018) and President (2003-2009; 2015-2018) and current Geographic Representative (2018-2021) for South America of LATINFOODS (Latin American Food Composition Network). She has contributed to the capacity and standard development in food composition. Her research activities are currently oriented to the study of Andean crops in Northwest Argentina with the main objective of promoting sustainable productive activities. i) The research group she directs relieved agricultural producers in relation to their productive and economic-social characteristics to detect potentialities. Organizational proposals accepted by the communities involved and compatible with their worldview, values, culture and history were made. ii) The biodiversity of Andean crops was preserved through the reinsertion of genetic material and characterization of the different varieties. This material was distributed to agricultural cooperatives to encourage their cultivation and conservation. iii) Processed foods are developed based on Andean products, using low-cost technologies applicable to the region, which allow high retention of nutrients, bio-functional compounds and their sensory characteristics. She has published numerous scientific articles, book chapters, and technical or policy-guidance documents and has received awards for her work in the field of food and nutrition.

Octavio Paredes-López, PhD, earned his bachelor degree in Biochemical Engineering and a Master in Food Science and Technology at the National Polytechnic Institute in Mexico City; a Master in Biochemical Engineering at the Czech Academy of Sciences; and a PhD at the University of Manitoba, Department of Plant Sciences, Winnipeg, Canada. He has done postdoctoral and research stays in several universities and institutes in countries including USA, Canada, France, UK, Germany, Switzerland and Brazil. He has published over 245 scientific papers in refereed international journals, 55 reviews and book chapters, author/editor/coeditor of 10 books, and 125 articles on the role of science in popular newspapers mainly in Mexico and some in the USA and France. In total over 435 works. His scientific publications have been on basic and applied aspects of foods (i.e, fruits, cereals, plant foods, molecular biology, GMOs), on microbial topics (i.e., genetic modifications, fermentation technology, overexpression of secondary compounds), and on biotechnology. Students: he has graduated over 100 students doing research in his laboratory; some of them from abroad. He has received all Mexican awards of his area of research including the highest recognition: the Mexican Award in Science. Emeritus Professor and Emeritus National Researcher. International recognitions: Institute of Food Technologists Fellow USA; WK Kellogg International Food Security Award; Nestlé Award; Academy of Sciences of the Developing World – Agriculture Award, Trieste, Italy. Ordre National du Mérite, Republique Française, Paris, France. Vicepresident and President of the Mexican Academy of Sciences. Doctor Honoris causa of three Mexican universities. Doctor Honoris causa of the University of Manitoba, Canada, where he earned his PhD.