The plant species which are researched most intensively are those which we depend upon for food. This is a category even more heavily-researched than those plants used for medicine – even though this may run counter to expectations. Our medicinal species get researched for their growth habits and reliability as producers of some useful chemical compound, but little research beyond this is required. However, for food species, there are many more avenues of research consistently covered.
For a useful plant species such as rice (Oryza spp.), one can easily find research about its growth habits, its genetic makeup, its chemical makeup and digestive factors (and recipes containing rice!), variations between species and varieties, its place in human markets, its prevalent diseases and pests as well as their indiviual behaviours, its likely descent from theoretical precursors, and its history in human terms.
Another food species – Solanum tuberosum (the potatoe) – has a number of research institutes named in its behalf:
Potato Research Institute / Havlickuv Brod, Czech Republic
Potato institute of Heilongjiang / Keshan, Heilongjiang, China
Southern Centre of Potato Enshi / Hubei, China
Belarusian Research Institute for Potato Growing (BRIP) / Samokhvalovitchi, Minsk region, Belarus
Moscow Potato Institute / Moscow, Russia
Benxi Potato Research Institute / Liaoning, China
Potato Center of Biotechnology Institute / Yunnan, China
Centro Internacional de la Papa / Lima, Peru.
Each of these provide in-depth research about their subject of interest – the potatoe. And the research can easily be seen to cover truly diverse aspects of this plant.
In the end, the plants which we eat get the most research done on their behalf. Or – maybe I had better word it as: we devote the most research to the plants which we eat the most, on our own behalf!
