J. Amir, V. Kahn

The second stage of the research on control of starch –sugar conversion in plants, involving low temperature effect on sugar-starch conversion on potato ,was performed in Israel in cooperation with the division of food technology, and supported by a grant from the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation. The findings of major importance in this multi-disciplinary project were:

a) As a result of the need to study the starch-to-sugar conversion. in the

absence of complications introduced by budding (sprouting), ., new, inexpensive and simple method of chemically debudding potato was developed. The method opened the way in permitting careful studies of aging process in tubers during storage at any temperature, and therefore was a key technological advance .

b) A brief period of controlled anoxia can cause a long-lasting inhibition

of the starch-to-sugar conversion during cold storage. The method proposed was inexpensive, effective, and could be readily adapted to commercial use .

Amir, J., Kahn, V. and Unterman, M. (1976). Prevention of sugar

accumulation in cold-stored potato. Abstract of papers presented at the

meeting of Botanical Society of Israel. Tel Aviv University (in Hebrew

with English abstract).

Amir, J., Kahn, V. and Unterman, M. (1977). Sugar accumulation in

chemically debudded tubers during cold storage. Phytochemistry 16:

1603-1604. ‘

Amir, J., Kahn, V. and Unterman, M. (1977). Respiration, ATP level, and , t

sugar accumulation in potato tubers during storage at 4°. V

Phytochemistry 16: 1495-1498.

Amir, J. and Kahn, V. (1978). Means to prevent starch to sugar conversion.

Fifth Iternational Congress of Food Science and Technology, Kyoto,

Japan, pp. 193.

Kahn, V., Goldschmidt, S., Amir, J. and Granot, R. (1979). Some

biochemical properties of soluble and bound potato tuber peroxidase. J.

Food Sci. 46: 756-764.