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Cleome gynandra (L.) Briq. is an African leafy vegetable with a potential to improve food security and micronutrient deficiencies. Cytological traits, breeding biology and genetic diversity of 30 selected entries of C. gynandra from six African countries were investigated. The entries consisted of advanced lines, gene bank accessions and farmers’ cultivars. Our study revealed chromosome numbers of 2n = 34 in root tip metaphase cells from one entry. The 30 entries were found to be diploid with genome sizes ranging from 2.31 to 2.45 pg/2C. Hand pollination experiments were carried out to assess self‐incompatibility within the entries and revealed that they are self‐ and cross‐compatible. For genetic diversity studies within and among the entries, the pooled data of 499 polymorphic bands from 11 amplified fragment length polymorphism primer combinations and nine simple sequence repeat markers were used. The genetic distance among the entries ranged from 0.13 to 0.77. In a principal coordinate analysis, the farmers’ cultivars formed a cluster separate from the advanced lines and the gene bank entries, and the latter were not well resolved.

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Consumption safety of Solanum scabrum berries is controversial in different cultural practices and evaluation of the toxicity as well as micronutrition value relies on relevant phytochemical study. Thus, this study aimed to systematically profile the phytochemicals in the berries from different genetic sources and maturity. Using a combination of three different and complementary methods of HPLC-UV/Vis-MS or MS/MS with acid-assisted hydrolysis, a total of 54 phytochemicals were identified including polyphenols, saponins and toxic glycoalkaloids. Particularly, a broad range of glycoalkaloids of solasodine and its uncommon or potentially novel hydroxylated and methylated derivatives were reported, with the structure putatively identified based on the known scaffold-fragmentation pattern. Other identified phytochemicals included phenolic acids of chlorogenic acid and neochlorogenic acid, flavonol glycosides of quercetin and isorhamnetin, anthocyanins of petunidin, malvidin and delphinidin, and saponins of diosgenin and tigogenin. Practical Application:This study provides solutions for identifying the phytochemicals of S. scabrum berries, and unveiled for the first time a wide range of toxic glycoalkaloids of solasodine and analogues in the berries from different genetic sources and maturation stages. This work laid the foundation for prospective quantitative determination of berry phytochemicals and future toxicity and nutrition evaluation, and could also apply to facilitate screening or breeding for glycoalkaloid-deficient genotypes that can be used as new food supply.

African leafy vegetables are becoming important crops in tackling nutrition and food security in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, since they provide important micronutrients and vitamins, and help resource-poor farm families bridge lean periods of food shortage. Genetic diversity studies are essential for crop improvement programmes as well as germplasm conservation efforts, and research on genetic diversity of these vegetables using molecular markers has been increasing over time. Diversity studies have evolved from the use of morphological and biochemical markers to molecular markers. Molecular markers provide valuable data, since they detect mostly selectively neutral variations at the DNA level. They are well established and their strengths and limitations have been described. New marker types are being developed from a combination of the strengths of the basic techniques to improve sensitivity, reproducibility, polymorphic information content, speed and cost. This review discusses the principles of some of the established molecular markers and their application to genetic diversity studies of African leafy vegetables with a main focus on the most common Solanum, Amaranthus, Cleome and Vigna species.

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