Growing, postharvest and more about the chayote, a vegetable plenty of interesting properties

The Cucurbitaceae family represents an important group of domesticated plants including the genera Cucumis, Momordica, Luffa, Lageraria, Citrullus, and in Central America Cucurbita and Sechium stand out because of their nutritious and economic value. The importance of chayote, Sechium edule (Jacq.) Sw., is based on the growing commercial demand of the fruit and its large-scale production in Mexico and Costa Rica, and to a lesser extent, in Guatemala, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Algeria, India, New Zealand, and Australia. Chayote comes from the cloud forest of Mexico and Central America, the central region being the State of Veracruz, Mexico, where the largest infraspecific variation has been identified, recently classified in botanical varieties with different shape, color, and flavor. Despite the large variety, only the chayote called smooth green (Virens levis) has been utilized for largescale commercial exploitation. For this variety, research has been carried out with respect to traditional and commercial production systems, ecophysiological behavior, disease identification and diagnosis (under field and storage conditions), postharvest technology, medicinal and nutraceutic use, and regulations for international trade, topics referred to in the review ?Production, Genetics, Postharvest Management and Pharmacological Characteristics of Sechium edule (Jacq.) Sw.? by the researchers from Mexico Jorge Cadena-I?iguez, Lourdes Ar?valo-Galarza, larevalo@colpos.mx (who kindly delivered this review), Carlos H. Avenda?o-Arrazate, Marcos Soto-Hern?ndez, Lucero del Mar Ruiz-Posadas, Edelmiro Santiago-Osorio, Marcelo Acosta-Ramos, and Victor M. Cisneros-Solano.The document is available below SourceFresh Produce ?2007 Global Science BooksPictures1 - Botanical varieties of chayote2 - Cover page of "Postharvest Management and Pharmacological Characteristics of Sechium edule (Jacq.) Sw."