Bounty of Vitamins from "Golden" Potato.

• Position: NUTRITION - Brief article

An experimental "golden" potato could hold the power to prevent disease and death in developing countries where residents rely heavily upon the starchy food for sustenance, research suggests. A serving of the yellow-orange lab-engineered potato has the potential to provide as much as 42% of a child's recommended daily intake of vitamin A and 34% of recommended intake of vitamin E, according to a study co-led by researchers at Ohio State University, Columbus.

Women of reproductive age could get 15% of their recommended vitamin A and 17% of recommended vitamin E from that same 5.3-ounce serving.

Potato is the fourth most-widely consumed plant food by humans after rice, wheat, and corn, reports the Department of Agriculture. It is a staple food in a number of Asian, African, and South American countries, where there is a high incidence of vitamin A and vitamin E deficiency.

"More than 800,000 people depend on the potato as their main source...