John Griffith Vaughan (5 May 1926 – 17 May 2005) was a Welsh food scientist. He was an expert in seed science, whose work linked the fields of botany and nutrition.
During nearly 40 years at the University of London, Vaughan pioneered new techniques for the study of seed proteins, became the leading expert on the structure and composition of oilseeds such as oilseed rape, and was widely consulted by industry. His expertise in identifying plant parts in animal and human foods was much sought after by flour millers and other food processors.
Born into modest circumstances in the industrial town of Merthyr Tydfil, Vaughan came to love plants as a boy, while walking in the Brecon Beacons. After grammar school, he entered the Victoria University of Manchester at the age of 17, to take a degree in botany. His first post was at a schoolteacher at Hele's School, Plympton, during which he published his first paper, and resolved on a career in research. After completing a Ph.D. thesis and lecturing, both at the then Chelsea Polytechnic, in 1958 Vaughan moved to Queen Elizabeth College, a college of the University of London situated in a leafy corner of Kensington. Initially in the College’s Department of Biology, he later moved to the Food Science department. The College merged with King's College London, in 1985, and in 1986 Vaughan was appointed as Professor of Food Microscopy.
During the 1970s and 1980s, when botany was increasingly displaced by more fashionable subjects, Vaughan did much to sustain research and teaching of plant science in London University, including the use of plant anatomy for identifying ancient seed remains at the Institute of Archaeology. He was an excellent teacher, meticulous and lucid, and kindly, and much in demand as an examiner of doctoral theses.
Much of Vaughan’s research was concerned with the genus Brassica , which includes many important crops, such as oilseed rape, cabbage, and mustard. Although very different in appearance, these crops are closely related and notoriously difficult to classify. In the 1960s Vaughan’s research team used the newly developed technique of electrophoresis to study the proteins of Brassica seeds, using similarities in their properties to clarify their taxonomic relationships. This pioneering interest in chemotaxonomy – the use of plant chemicals to study the classification of plants – led Vaughan to edit several books, including Seed Proteins and The Biology and Chemistry of the Cruciferae. These studies of seed composition were combined with work on seed structure, particularly of oilseeds. This led to the publication in 1970 of The Structure and Utilization of Oil Seeds, still the standard work on the subject.
After his retirement in 1991, Vaughan’s penchant for teaching and for multi-disciplinary work found a natural outlet in two books written for both popular and scientific audiences, the New Oxford Book of Food Plants (1997, with Catherine Geissler), and the Oxford Book of Health Foods (2003, with Pat Judd). The research for these was carried out in the library of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, not far from his home in Petersham. As well as providing a congenial home from home, Kew provided many of the plants painted specially for the New Oxford Book of Food Plants, and was the source of the historic illustrations used for the Oxford Book of Health Foods. These books achieved a rare synthesis of up-to-date and accessible scientific content, combined with beautiful illustrations of plants. As awareness increases of the role of plant foods in health, these books are timely works which have established themselves as standard texts.
He died in Petersham, Surrey, on 17 May 2005.
J. G. Vaughan. 1970. The structure and utilization of oil seeds. London: Chapman & Hall.
J.G. Vaughan, A.J. MacLeod and B.M.G. Jones (eds). 1976. The biology and chemistry of the Cruciferae. London: Academic Press.
J. G. Vaughan (ed.). 1979. Food microscopy. London: Academic Press.
F.A. Bisby, J.G. Vaughan, C.A. Wright (eds). 1980. Chemosystematics: principles and practice. London: Published for the Systematics Association by Academic Press.
J. Daussant, J. Mossé, J. Vaughan (eds). 1983. Seed proteins. London: Academic Press.
J.G. Vaughan and C. Geissler. 1997. The New Oxford book of food plants : a guide to the fruit, vegetables, herbs and spices of the world. London: Oxford University Press.
J.G. Vaughan and P.A. Judd. 2003. The Oxford book of health foods. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Brassicaceae or Cruciferae is a medium-sized and economically important family of flowering plants commonly known as the mustards, the crucifers, or the cabbage family. Most are herbaceous plants, while some are shrubs. They have simple alternatingly-set leaves, without stipules, or in leaf rosettes. Their inflorescences are terminal and bractless. Their flowers have four free sepals, four free alternating petals, two shorter free stamens and four longer free stamens. Their fruit has seeds in rows, divided by a thin wall.
The turnip or white turnip is a root vegetable commonly grown in temperate climates worldwide for its white, fleshy taproot. The word turnip is a compound of turn as in turned/rounded on a lathe and neep, derived from Latin napus, the word for the plant. Small, tender varieties are grown for human consumption, while larger varieties are grown as feed for livestock. In the north of England, Scotland, Ireland, Cornwall and parts of Canada, the word turnip often refers to rutabaga, also known as swede, a larger, yellow root vegetable in the same genus (Brassica).
Canola oil is a vegetable oil derived from a variety of rapeseed that is low in erucic acid, as opposed to colza oil. There are both edible and industrial forms produced from the seed of any of several cultivars of the plant family Brassicaceae.
Rapeseed, also known as rape, or oilseed rape, is a bright-yellow flowering member of the family Brassicaceae, cultivated mainly for its oil-rich seed, which naturally contains appreciable amounts of erucic acid. Canola are a group of rapeseed cultivars which were bred to have very low levels of erucic acid and are especially prized for use as human and animal food. Rapeseed is the third-largest source of vegetable oil and the second-largest source of protein meal in the world.
Brassica oleracea is a plant species that includes many common cultivars, such as cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, collard greens, Savoy cabbage, kohlrabi, and gai lan.
Brassica rapa is a plant species growing in various widely cultivated forms including the turnip ; napa cabbage, bomdong, bok choy, and rapini; and Brassica rapa subsp. oleifera, an oilseed which has many common names, including turnip rape, field mustard, bird's rape, and keblock.
Camelina sativa is a flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae and is usually known in English as camelina, gold-of-pleasure, or false flax, also occasionally wild flax, linseed dodder, German sesame, and Siberian oilseed. It is native to Europe and to Central Asian areas. This plant is cultivated as an oilseed crop mainly in Europe and in North America.
The mustard plant is any one of several plant species in the genera Brassica and Sinapis in the family Brassicaceae. Mustard seed is used as a spice. Grinding and mixing the seeds with water, vinegar, or other liquids creates the yellow condiment known as prepared mustard. The seeds can also be pressed to make mustard oil, and the edible leaves can be eaten as mustard greens. Many vegetables are cultivated varieties of mustard plants; domestication may have begun 6,000 years ago.
Campesterol is a phytosterol whose chemical structure is similar to that of cholesterol, and is one of the ingredients for E number E499.
Perilla oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from perilla seeds. Having a distinct nutty aroma and taste, the oil pressed from the toasted perilla seeds is used as a flavor enhancer, condiment, and cooking oil in Korean cuisine. The oil pressed from untoasted perilla seeds is used for non-culinary purposes.
Leptosphaeria maculans is a fungal pathogen of the phylum Ascomycota that is the causal agent of blackleg disease on Brassica crops. Its genome has been sequenced, and L. maculans is a well-studied model phytopathogenic fungus. Symptoms of blackleg generally include basal stem cankers, small grey lesions on leaves, and root rot. The major yield loss is due to stem canker. The fungus is dispersed by the wind as ascospores or rain splash in the case of the conidia. L. maculans grows best in wet conditions and a temperature range of 5–20 degrees Celsius. Rotation of crops, removal of stubble, application of fungicide, and crop resistance are all used to manage blackleg. The fungus is an important pathogen of Brassica napus (canola) crops.
Arugula or rocket is an edible annual plant in the family Brassicaceae used as a leaf vegetable for its fresh, tart, bitter, and peppery flavor. Other common names include garden rocket, and eruca. It is also called "ruchetta", "rucola", "rucoli", "rugula", "colewort", and "roquette". Eruca sativa, which is widely popular as a salad vegetable, is a species of Eruca native to the Mediterranean region, from Morocco and Portugal in the west to Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt and Turkey in the east.
Napa cabbage is a type of Chinese cabbage originating near the Beijing region of China that is widely used in East Asian cuisine. Since the 20th century, it has also become a widespread crop in Europe, the Americas and Australia. In much of the world, it is referred to as "Chinese cabbage". In Australia it also is referred to as "wombok".
Nervonic acid is a fatty acid. It is a monounsaturated analog of lignoceric acid (24:0). It is also known as selacholeic acid and cis-15-tetracosenoic acid. Its name derives from the Latin word nervus, meaning nerve or sinew.
Daphne J. Osborne was a British botanist. Her research in the field of plant physiology spanned five decades and resulted in over two hundred papers, twenty of which were published in Nature. Her obituary in The Times described her scientific achievements as "legendary"; that from the Botanical Society of America attributed her success to "her wonderful intellectual style, combined with her proclivity for remarkable and perceptive experimental findings".
Black rot, caused by the bacterium Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris (Xcc), is considered the most important and most destructive disease of crucifers, infecting all cultivated varieties of brassicas worldwide. This disease was first described by botanist and entomologist Harrison Garman in Lexington, Kentucky, US in 1889. Since then, it has been found in nearly every country in which vegetable brassicas are commercially cultivated.
Brassica elongata, the elongated mustard or long-stalked rape, is a species of the mustard plant that is native to parts of Central Europe, Eastern Europe, the Balkan Peninsula, the Caucasus, Morocco and parts of Central Asia. Through plant invasion this species has become naturalized in many other parts of the world. Some of these naturalized regions include South Africa, North Western Europe, Australia and North America. Given the wide range of climate and ecological conditions of these regions, B. elongata has been able to disrupt the ecosystems of their native plant habitats and has been label as an invasive species in many of its naturalized zones. In North America, this species is often found as a roadside weed in the southwestern states, particularly in the state of Nevada. Studies allude that the Cruciferae might have migrated through the Bering land bridge from what is now Central Asia. Commonly known as the long-stalked rape or as langtraubiger Kohl in German, this species is a close cousin to Brassica napus (rapeseed) and a secondary genetic relative to B. oleracea (kale). As a close genetic species of the rapeseed, the long-stalked rape has one of the highest counts of accumulated polyunsaturated linoleic and linolenic acid. Both compounds are heavily used to manufacture vegetable oils. Brassica elongata has the propagative potential of turning into a horticultural product from what is currently a noxious weed.
Barbara Jane Howlett is an Australian fungal plant pathologist.
Perilla is a genus consisting of one major Asiatic crop species Perilla frutescens and a few wild species in nature belonging to the mint family, Lamiaceae. The genus encompasses several distinct varieties of Asian herb, seed, and vegetable crop, including P. frutescens (deulkkae) and P. frutescens var. crispa (shiso). The genus name Perilla is also a frequently employed common name ("perilla"), applicable to all varieties. Perilla varieties are cross-fertile and intra-specific hybridization occurs naturally. Some varieties are considered invasive.
Brassicogethes aeneus, the common pollen beetle, is a species of pollen beetle in the family Nitidulidae. Other common names include the rape pollen beetle and rape blossom beetle. It was previously known as Meligethes aeneus.