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Yacon ( Smallanthus sonchifolius) is a tuber, whose syrup contains a large amount of fructooligosaccharides (FOS), which are carbohydrates that are partially absorbed and prebiotic in nature. Yacon may have benefits for intestinal health and may reduce appetite, but studies on it are limited
Our evidence-based analysis on yacon features 55 unique references to scientific papers.
Summary of Yacon
Yacon is a name used to refer to the plant Smallanthus sonchifolius, which is a tuber vegetable (similar to a potato) and a common food product in South America. It looks like a sweet potato and tastes like a pear. While the tuber itself is used in cooking, a syrup derived from the tuber (called yacon syrup) is used as an alternative sweetener.
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Yacon Root Info
The yacon is native to the Andes, in present-day Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru. It’s gaining worldwide popularity, however, in part because of its unusual source of sweetness. Unlike most tubers, which get their sweetness from glucose, yacon root derives its sweetness from inulin, which the human body can’t process.
How to Grow Yacon Plants
Yacon does not propagate by seed, but by rhizome: that clump of red just below the soil. If you are beginning with unsprouted rhizomes, keep them in a dark place, slightly covered in damp sand.
What Is Yacon Syrup?
Are you a fan of healthy sweeteners like raw honey? If the answer is “yes,” then you may want to try yacon syrup if you haven’t already!
Nutrition Facts and Active Ingredients
It does not contain any refined sugar, but yacon root syrup is high in fructooligosaccharides (FOS), an indigestible polysaccharide made up of fructose or fruit sugar.
Can Yacon Syrup Help With Weight Loss?
Research shows that, for some people, a daily intake of yacon root syrup can help reduce body weight, waist circumference and body mass index.
Health Benefits and Uses
Research shows that this syrup has a number of possible benefits and uses, including improving insulin resistance, boosting bone health, supporting digestion, increasing testosterone and maybe even helping ward off cancer.
Recipes
You can purchase yacon root syrup online or at many health stores. Look for 100 percent pure yacon root syrup with no additional additives or other substances. You can check out yacon syrup reviews to see what other people are saying about the taste and quality of various brands.
Risks and Side Effects
In large quantities, yacon root syrup can cause minor digestive issues. Possible yacon syrup side effects including gas, abdominal discomfort or bloating. In general, fructooligosaccharides seem to be safe when taken in quantities of less than 30 grams per day. A typical serving of yacon root syrup is one teaspoon or five grams.
Varieties
Yacon tubers (Smallanthus sonchifolius) can be red, orange, yellow, pink and purple but most of the more colourful ones are found only in South America, where yacon originates. The rest of us are likely to find only white varieties.
Growing
Yacon is a perennial plant, so once you have planted it, so long as you look after it, you will have it forever.
Harvesting
Yacon tubers develop into autumn, and as the frosts approach it's worth putting a little straw around the plant to protect the tubers. The leafy growth is withered by the cold – as soon as this happens, use a long fork to gently lift the tubers.
Eating
Yacon has a crunchy texture, slightly reminiscent of water chestnuts, and a sweet flavour, so it's rather good simply peeled, sliced and eaten as a snack. It's great in salads too, though its tendency to brown means that you should add it at the last minute, once everything else is assembled and ready to be dressed, or sprinkle with a little lemon juice to prevent it discolouring as it's peeled (and do peel it, the skin can be a little bitter)..
Yacon and blue cheese salad
It's not easy to improve upon the famously fabulous combination of walnuts and blue cheese but the addition of yacon, with its succulent sweet crunch, really lightens and freshens this deliciously different lunch.
What Is the Yacon Root?
In the plant family Asteraceae, this daisy-like plant produces thick tuberous roots that are often mistaken for jicama. However, jicama is a type of bean and unrelated. Yacon is most closely related to the sunflower. Other common names for the tasty treat include Bolivian sunroot, apple of the Earth, strawberry jicama, or ground pear.
How to Grow Yacon Root
The planting options for yacon root are endless. Tuck a few plants in the garden, along a fence line, or plant the pasture with yacon. Although yacon prefers loamy, fertile soil, it manages to grow almost anywhere in a diverse array of conditions.
Planting Yacon Root
To prepare your garden for planting, work the soil well to a 1-foot depth, removing rocks, roots, and weeds. Enhance the soil with a generous application of well-aged herbivore manure (cow, sheep, horse, mule, llama, goat), and cultivate the manure well into the soil.
How to Keep Your Yacon Rhizomes Over Winter
It’s fairly easy to keep yacon rhizome starts over the winter by storing the core which will produce a new plant come spring. Keep the reddish tubers out of direct sunlight, and cover with damp sawdust, peat, horticultural sand (do not use beach sand which contains salt), or coco-peat to retain moisture.
Yacon Root Uses and Benefits
Native to the Central and Northern Andes of South America, the fibrous yacon root has been nurtured for centuries as a food staple with a diverse array of uses. The crunchy roots are eaten raw or cooked, and the leaves are used in a flavorful medicinal tea.
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Overview
The yacón (Smallanthus sonchifolius) is a species of perennial daisy traditionally grown in the northern and central Andes from Colombia to northern Argentina for its crisp, sweet-tasting, tuberous roots. Their texture and flavour are very similar to jícama, mainly differing in that yacón has some slightly sweet, resinous, and floral (similar to violet) undertones to its flavour, probably due to the presence of
Biology
Yacón is sometimes confused with the unrelated plant jícama (Pachyrhizus erosus), which is a legume, as yacón is commonly called jícama in Ecuador. Yacón, in contrast, is a close relative of the sunflower and Jerusalem artichoke. Unlike many other root vegetables domesticated by the indigenous peoples of the Andes (ulluco, oca and mashua), yacón is not photoperiod sensitive and can …
Cultivation
Yacón can easily be grown in gardens in climates with only light freezes. It grows well in Kathmandu, Nepal, southern Australia (including Tasmania) and in New Zealand, where the climate is mild and the growing season long. The plant was introduced to Japan in the 1980s, and from there its cultivation spread to other Asian countries, notably South Korea, China, and the Philippines, and is n…
Chemistry
The chemical composition of yacon varies depending on factors such as location, farming, the growing season, harvest time and the post-harvest temperature.
Yacon tubers consist mostly of water and carbohydrates. The water content is about 70% of fresh weight. Therefore, the energy value is low. The dry matter is composed of out of 40-70% of fructooligosaccharides. Inulin, a low-polymerization β(2-1)-oligosaccharide is the main fructoolig…
Use
Generally, yacón is cultivated in different countries for food and medicinal use. Since 1960, this plant spread from South America to a lot of different countries around the world such as New Zealand, Japan and many other countries which lead to variable usages.
The tubers can be eaten raw, boiled, dehydrated, roasted or processed into beverages, jams, syrup, vinegar, flour, chips and juice. If they are eaten fresh, they are sweet and crunchy.
Diseases and control strategies
The yacón plant gets infected by different species such as nematodes, bacteria, fungi, viruses and insects.
The root-knot nematode (Meloidogyne incognita) leads to crop loss due to the various symptoms as poor growth and roots with characteristic galls. Following, disease free propagation material is necessary to intensify the yacon production. A safe procedure is to take shoot axillary buds as i…
See also
• New World crops
Further reading
• G. Butler G; D. Rivera (2004). "Innovations in Peeling Technology for Yacon" (PDF). Project Report. International Potato Center.
• Graefe, S; Hermann, M; Manrique, I; Golombek, S; Buerkert, A (March 2004). "Effects of post-harvest treatments on the carbohydrate composition of yacon roots in the Peruvian Andes". Field Crops Research. 86 (2–3): 157–165. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.624.2277. doi:10.1016/j.fcr.2003.08.003.