Giant Radish
Radish is a popular Chinese vegetable among Hong Kong, you can find many cuisine about using radish like Chinese Braised Beef Brisket With Radish etc. Many families make their homemade radish cake to celebrate the Chinese new year for fortune. Enjoying radish cake is the most tasty part of lunar new year, our relatives chop the radish cake into rectangular pieces, fried it within a pan, nice smell will spread through the room and mouth watering.
Radish is differentiated into many species and looks completely different. The main type of radishs are cherry radish, early type radish and late type radish in Chinese culture. Cherry radish color and size take shape like a cherry, early type radish take shape and size like a sausage. Late type radish is the largest size of radish that we grown. There is a Japanese/Korean radish variety called daikon, the texture is watery compare to late type radish, but the size is larger than that. Some holiday farmer grew Daikon and yielded a 7 catty radish.
Radish is one of the legendary within our farm. Many city farmers reserve their land and sow radish seeds in each autumn to winter. Mr. Wong will verify the seeds sowing date within October during September. Family that interested to grow radish will gathered on seed sowing day, they received radish seeds from Mr. Wong, and listened his instruction to plough the land, made the V-shape trench, and then sowed three or more radish seeds in shape of triangle before irrigation. Most of them visited their field in each Saturday or Sunday to take care their seedling by fertilizing and irrigating. They removed unnecessary seedling to restore space for the stronger one to grow. During growing stage, the leaf in base will be removed to restore nutrients for the root to increase its size. Those unnecessary seedling or leafs can be used as mustard or making some soup, with a lot of vitamin and minerals although the favor is inferior when compare to radish variety specified for leaf harvesting.
There is poor germination occur in 2013. The radish seeds that bought by Mr. Wong can't germinate, many holiday farmer sowed their seeds again but haven't got satisfactory result.
The harvest time of the radish is around January or February depends on the day near Chinese New Year. Holiday farmer will pick up their radish and weight them on the balance to calculate how much radish they grown. Sometimes they yell out how much catty (chinese measure unit) for the radish weight.
Other benefits are found with consuming radish. Radish is low in saturated fat and cholesterol, which suitable for people with cardiovascular problem (5). It is also a good source of Riboflavin, Vitamin B6, Calcium, Magnesium, Copper and Manganese, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin C, Folate and Potassium (5). Those minerals are important for human metabolism (5).
Radish is differentiated into many species and looks completely different. The main type of radishs are cherry radish, early type radish and late type radish in Chinese culture. Cherry radish color and size take shape like a cherry, early type radish take shape and size like a sausage. Late type radish is the largest size of radish that we grown. There is a Japanese/Korean radish variety called daikon, the texture is watery compare to late type radish, but the size is larger than that. Some holiday farmer grew Daikon and yielded a 7 catty radish.
Radish is one of the legendary within our farm. Many city farmers reserve their land and sow radish seeds in each autumn to winter. Mr. Wong will verify the seeds sowing date within October during September. Family that interested to grow radish will gathered on seed sowing day, they received radish seeds from Mr. Wong, and listened his instruction to plough the land, made the V-shape trench, and then sowed three or more radish seeds in shape of triangle before irrigation. Most of them visited their field in each Saturday or Sunday to take care their seedling by fertilizing and irrigating. They removed unnecessary seedling to restore space for the stronger one to grow. During growing stage, the leaf in base will be removed to restore nutrients for the root to increase its size. Those unnecessary seedling or leafs can be used as mustard or making some soup, with a lot of vitamin and minerals although the favor is inferior when compare to radish variety specified for leaf harvesting.
There is poor germination occur in 2013. The radish seeds that bought by Mr. Wong can't germinate, many holiday farmer sowed their seeds again but haven't got satisfactory result.
The harvest time of the radish is around January or February depends on the day near Chinese New Year. Holiday farmer will pick up their radish and weight them on the balance to calculate how much radish they grown. Sometimes they yell out how much catty (chinese measure unit) for the radish weight.
I grow radish at autumn and winter for harvesting radish to make a cake. I buy my own radish seeds in the seed stores within sheung wan, and sow those seeds in the farm around october to wait for germinations. When the harvest time come, I call my relatives on the harvest day, they picked some radish to grandmother home and distributed to each family for homemade radish cake.
I sowed Daikon seeds in 2013 and yield a successful result. The germination rate of the daikon seeds is high when compare to other seeds at the same time. You can see many heart shape leaf, it is the cotyledon of Daikon plants as an evidence for successful germination. When we thinned out some of the seedling, they formed small radish root already, thus we make vegetable soup to drink. Finally, we harvested all the Daikon in February of 2014. My relatives are happy with the harvest, including Hong Kong artist Wong Wing Fung. Daikon has a half-green root rather than traditional radish. Most of my relatives use Daikon for hot pot and radish cake, which yield better quality when compare to the traditional late radish. In the following pictures, you can find out their happy smile, as well as product made from the root.
I satisfied with the harvest in my trials. I forgot to add rock sugar to the radish before the steaming process when I made radish cake , it turns out the cake contained a lot of organic radish sweet taste as the radish stored sugar in the root during the growing process.
I sowed Daikon seeds in 2013 and yield a successful result. The germination rate of the daikon seeds is high when compare to other seeds at the same time. You can see many heart shape leaf, it is the cotyledon of Daikon plants as an evidence for successful germination. When we thinned out some of the seedling, they formed small radish root already, thus we make vegetable soup to drink. Finally, we harvested all the Daikon in February of 2014. My relatives are happy with the harvest, including Hong Kong artist Wong Wing Fung. Daikon has a half-green root rather than traditional radish. Most of my relatives use Daikon for hot pot and radish cake, which yield better quality when compare to the traditional late radish. In the following pictures, you can find out their happy smile, as well as product made from the root.
I satisfied with the harvest in my trials. I forgot to add rock sugar to the radish before the steaming process when I made radish cake , it turns out the cake contained a lot of organic radish sweet taste as the radish stored sugar in the root during the growing process.
For the food chemistry of
radish, it contains 4-methylthio-3-butenyl isothiocyanate (raphasatin).
The mechanism of action for 4-methylthio-3-butenyl isothiocyanate. 4-methylthio-3-butenyl isothiocyanate is an organic isothiocyanates (R-N=C=S), it is an electrophilic and easily attacked by nucleophiles groups such as amino groups (1). The electrophilic properties enable Isothiocyanates to react with cellular targets, so it is an effective antimicrobials compounds to against bacteria like Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and Aspergillus oryzae (1).
It is effective to prevent mutations and cancer by activating apoptosis (2). By activation of caspases (like caspase-9), the cancer cell are killed by cleaving cellular substrates and DNA repair enzyme PARP within the cell (2). The Bcl2 and Bax Expression are altered for early expression of apoptosis in the cancer cell (2).
Different daikons have different level of 4-methylthio-3-butenyl isothiocyanate against cancer. A study found that eight strains of daikon has different concentration of 4-methylthio-3-butenyl isothiocyanate (3). Those eight strain they studied consist of Aokubi, Karami , Momoyama, Sabaga , Karami, Shogoin, kuki and Nezumi (3).
In the experiment, they washed the daikon root with water, peeled, grated them with a daikon grater or cut into 2 cm cubes (3). After they placed it 30 min for incubation, an aliquot of the grated daikon (around 100 gram) was extracted with methanol (100 mL, three times), which can observed by cubed daikon was homogenized in methanol (3). Then they added 3 mL of 1 M HCl to avoid degradation of isothiocyanates in alkaline pH, so it can be preserved well (3). They partitioned those extract with n-hexane, chloroform, and ethyl acetate for three times (3). Later, those layer were evaporated to dryness at <35 °C, those aqueous layer was lyophilized (3).
In the measurement, 50 micro liter of n-hexane extract from daikon was diluted with the mixture of 0.45 mL of methanol and 0.45 mL of 50 mM Na2B4O7-HCl buffer (pH 8.5), then they added 50 íL of 8 mM 1,2-benzenedithiol and mixed with 1.5 mL plastic tube (3).
The extracts of different daikon were analyzed by HPLC, and different levels of raphasatin were found afterwards (3). Karami and Momoyama strains were found to have significantly higher raphasatin for antimutagenic activities (3).
Anti cancer properties has been proved by hamster. A study used hamster that exposed to carcinogenic agent such as N-nitrosobis (2-oxopropyl) amine (BOP) to induce cancer (4). The control group without raphasatin have significant weight loss and lots of tumor found when compare to trial group administrated with raphasin, which indicate the effect for protection in the body (4).
The mechanism of action for 4-methylthio-3-butenyl isothiocyanate. 4-methylthio-3-butenyl isothiocyanate is an organic isothiocyanates (R-N=C=S), it is an electrophilic and easily attacked by nucleophiles groups such as amino groups (1). The electrophilic properties enable Isothiocyanates to react with cellular targets, so it is an effective antimicrobials compounds to against bacteria like Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and Aspergillus oryzae (1).
It is effective to prevent mutations and cancer by activating apoptosis (2). By activation of caspases (like caspase-9), the cancer cell are killed by cleaving cellular substrates and DNA repair enzyme PARP within the cell (2). The Bcl2 and Bax Expression are altered for early expression of apoptosis in the cancer cell (2).
Different daikons have different level of 4-methylthio-3-butenyl isothiocyanate against cancer. A study found that eight strains of daikon has different concentration of 4-methylthio-3-butenyl isothiocyanate (3). Those eight strain they studied consist of Aokubi, Karami , Momoyama, Sabaga , Karami, Shogoin, kuki and Nezumi (3).
In the experiment, they washed the daikon root with water, peeled, grated them with a daikon grater or cut into 2 cm cubes (3). After they placed it 30 min for incubation, an aliquot of the grated daikon (around 100 gram) was extracted with methanol (100 mL, three times), which can observed by cubed daikon was homogenized in methanol (3). Then they added 3 mL of 1 M HCl to avoid degradation of isothiocyanates in alkaline pH, so it can be preserved well (3). They partitioned those extract with n-hexane, chloroform, and ethyl acetate for three times (3). Later, those layer were evaporated to dryness at <35 °C, those aqueous layer was lyophilized (3).
In the measurement, 50 micro liter of n-hexane extract from daikon was diluted with the mixture of 0.45 mL of methanol and 0.45 mL of 50 mM Na2B4O7-HCl buffer (pH 8.5), then they added 50 íL of 8 mM 1,2-benzenedithiol and mixed with 1.5 mL plastic tube (3).
The extracts of different daikon were analyzed by HPLC, and different levels of raphasatin were found afterwards (3). Karami and Momoyama strains were found to have significantly higher raphasatin for antimutagenic activities (3).
Anti cancer properties has been proved by hamster. A study used hamster that exposed to carcinogenic agent such as N-nitrosobis (2-oxopropyl) amine (BOP) to induce cancer (4). The control group without raphasatin have significant weight loss and lots of tumor found when compare to trial group administrated with raphasin, which indicate the effect for protection in the body (4).
Other benefits are found with consuming radish. Radish is low in saturated fat and cholesterol, which suitable for people with cardiovascular problem (5). It is also a good source of Riboflavin, Vitamin B6, Calcium, Magnesium, Copper and Manganese, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin C, Folate and Potassium (5). Those minerals are important for human metabolism (5).
1. Nakamura Y, Iwahashi T, Tanaka A, Koutani
J, Matsuo T, Okamoto S, et al. 4-(Methylthio)-3-butenyl Isothiocyanate, a
Principal Antimutagen in Daikon (Raphanus sativus; Japanese White Radish).
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 2001;49(12):5755-60.
2. Papi A, Orlandi M, Bartolini G, Barillari J, Iori R, Paolini M,
et al. Cytotoxic and Antioxidant Activity of 4-Methylthio-3-butenyl
Isothiocyanate from Raphanus sativus L. (Kaiware Daikon) Sprouts. Journal of
Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 2008;56(3):875-83.
3. Nakamura Y, Nakamura K, Asai Y, Wada T, Tanaka K, Matsuo T, et
al. Comparison of the Glucosinolate−Myrosinase Systems among Daikon (Raphanus
sativus, Japanese White Radish) Varieties. Journal of Agricultural and Food
Chemistry. 2008;56(8):2702-7.
4. Okamura T, Umemura T, Inoue T, Tasaki M, Ishii Y, Nakamura Y, et
al. Chemopreventive Effects of 4-Methylthio-3-butenyl Isothiocyanate
(Raphasatin) but Not Curcumin against Pancreatic Carcinogenesis in Hamsters.
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 2013;61(9):2103-8.
5. Bellani LM, Salvini L, Dell’Aquila A, Scialabba A. Reactive
oxygen species release, vitamin E, fatty acid and phytosterol contents of
artificially aged radish (Raphanus sativus L.) seeds during germination. Acta
Physiologiae Plantarum. 2012;34(5):1789-99.
 |
Figure 1: radish seeds ready for sowing
|
 |
Figure 2: radish seeds sowed in a trench
|
 |
Figure 3: trench in the field for radish seeds sowing
|
 |
Figure 4: radish seeds germinated in the trench after one week
|
 |
Figure 5: Daikon radish ready to be harvest after few days
|
 |
Figure 6: Daikon radish close look
|
 |
Figure 7: Daikon radish harvest in the field
|
 |
Figure 8: Daikon radish ready for chinese new year radish cake
|
 |
Figure 9: Daikon radish cake finished
|
 |
Figure 10: Big radish harvest
|
Comments
Post a Comment