Professor Dr Md Harun-or-Rashid of the Department of Horticulture at Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) is researching coloured radishes and has grown them experimentally to see whether they can be cultivated properly in Bangladesh.

The radishes are purple, red, pink and red-white. Bangladesh usually grows long radishes, but for the first time the team is studying eight coloured round and oval varieties, six long coloured foreign varieties and three local varieties, 17 in all.

In the United States, Europe, Britain and Japan, round coloured radishes are eaten as salad radishes. The research aims to find out whether these nutritious varieties can be grown in Bangladesh's climate and soil.

Most Bangladeshis cook radish as a vegetable, and some dislike eating it raw because of its pungency and smell. Round coloured radishes are mildly pungent but leave no smell when eaten raw, and their colour and shape make them attractive as a salad alternative to cucumber, the professor said.

Being coloured, they are rich in anthocyanins and antioxidants. He said they can help lower diabetes, blood sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure, and being very low in calories, are ideal for dieting. They also contain anticarcinogenic compounds and plenty of potassium, calcium and fibre.

In winter the coloured radishes can be harvested in just 25 to 30 days, against at least 40 to 45 days for common local varieties, so at least three crops a season are possible. Round coloured radishes average 18 to 20 tonnes per hectare in the US and Britain; in the trial they yielded about 15 to 18 tonnes per hectare, with an average weight of 70 to 80 grams each.

The research was self-funded, and the professor said public or private support is needed for variety selection, improvement and nutritional analysis.

Source: Jagonews24 (reported by Asif Iqbal). First published in Bengali on The Agro News.