Why are some potatos green?

Question

I've been told something about green potatos several times, but I think it's a wives tale and I've been hearing it since I was little when my parents used to make me scrub spuds for supper. I really want to know the actual scientific reason for why some potatos have green skins but ........ the first person who answers with the same story I've been hearing for years gets the 10 points (wives tale or not)

OOPS wrong catagory!

To Embigguns: You must be the bad speller because your wrong I have not misspelled a single word in my question, if your talking about the word potato it is spelled right, it is a common mistake for people to spell it 'potatoe' and that is incorrect, even one of our past Presidents made that mistake to the whole nation. If your talking about wives tale I have seen it as two words or one I don't think it really matters. Besides that you got nothing. So before you make such a fool of yourself go get a dictionary and make sure you are right. When and if you think you know what words I spelled wrong tell me how you think they're spelled. P.S. Your avatar looks like Howard Stern who is about the ugliest man I've ever seen.

Kmennie, did I ask you to critique my comment to embigguns? What did that take you like an hour?You proved no point, I spelled nothing wrong in my question except the plural of potato. There is a book called 'Commonly Misspelled words' and potato is in it. "Common?" yes. You have answered 1632 questions since Oct.10th that averages about 12 a day, and you spent an hour coming up with links to "try" and correct my comment to embigguns, who by the way removed his answer because he looked like an idiot. My advice to you is if you sit at the computer so much you are gonna get a fat bottom, (that happens to alot of pregnant women) maybe go for a walk and mind your own business.

Answer 1

It's actually due to a phytochemical called Solanine. We learned about it in my Foods and Nutrition class at Purdue. It's actually toxic if you eat too much of it

Answer 2

Potatoes contain toxic compounds known as glycoalkaloids, of which the most prevalent are solanine and chaconine. Solanine is also found in other plants in the family Solanaceae, which includes such plants as the deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna), henbane (Hyoscyamus niger) and tobacco (Nicotiana) as well as the potato, eggplant, and tomato. This toxin affects the nervous system, causing weakness and confusion. That's the green that you often find under the skin. If you have a spud that has gone green, your best bet is to not use it for a baked potato or anything that still has the skins. In those situations, the cooking process will decompose a lot of the toxins, but there is still a lot of it there. Better to be safe and skin them to remove the toxic stuff and make them into mashed potatoes, hashbrowns, fries...etc. As a side note, there is an old wives tale concerning warts and young or green potatoes that science is starting to notice may have something to it. It goes something along the lines of taking the skin of a green potato and rubbing it on the wart. Then you bury the skin under the drainspout of your house. When the skin rots away, so to will the wart. Take away the bunk of the burying it under the drain spout and science is noticing that the glycoalkaloids is relatively effective at killing the virus that causes warts.

Answer 3

Potatoes, like tomatoes, egg plants and bell peppers, are part of the nightshade family. Along with such things as Jimson Weed, mandrake and belladonna.

They are of the plant family Solanaceae.

The potato's Latin name is Solanum tuberosum.

These plants contain "alkaloids." The most common being "tropane." Cocaine is a tropane.

For people - these alkaloids can be desirable, toxic, or both. They can cause hallucinations, convulsions, coma and death. Although, the most common illness attributed to green potatoes is a headache.

We keep potatoes in the dark because sunlight brings out their alkaloids - solanine and chaconine. Cooking at high temp, such as frying, can render them harmless. Can. Not will. So it's best to avoid potatoes that are green just under the skin.

The potato does have a lovely pink flower. Toxic or not, most followers of the macrobiotic diet avoid the nightshade family all together. Even the edible nightshades have been linked to hightened arthritis pain.

Answer 4

"You must be the bad speller because your wrong I have not misspelled a single word in my question, if your talking about the word potato it is spelled right, it is a common mistake for people to spell it 'potatoe' and that is incorrect, even one of our past Presidents made that mistake to the whole nation. If your talking about wives tale I have seen it as two words or one I don't think it really matters. Besides that you got nothing. So before you make such a fool of yourself go get a dictionary and make sure you are right. When and if you think you know what words I spelled wrong tell me how you think they're spelled."

Oh, dear. What a rant.

"You're," not "your."

http://wsu.edu/~brians/errors/your.html
http://www.english-zone.com/verbs/your1.html

And it wasn't one of _your_ ("our"? Thank heavens, no) past presidents; it was this bozo:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Quayle

"His most famous blunder was when he corrected student William Figueroa's correct spelling of "potato" as "potatoe" at an elementary school spelling bee in Trenton, New Jersey, on June 15, 1992."

"Common"? Maybe --

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/common

"7. of mediocre or inferior quality; mean; low: a rough-textured suit of the most common fabric.
8. coarse; vulgar: common manners.
9. lacking rank, station, distinction, etc.; unexceptional; ordinary: a common soldier; common people; the common man; a common thief. "

But that doesn't somehow change the correct plural spelling.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/potatoes

"–noun, plural -toes."

Answer 5

The green comes from a portion of the potato growing above the soil level letting photosynthesis take place and thus the green color. Yes there is a poison substance created when you see the green portion of the potato but you would have to eat a whole lot of potatoes to hurt you.

Answer 6

Christie F correctly pointed out the solanine. Solanine is a poisonous alkaloid naturally present in potatoes in harmless amounts, but if the potato has green skin that could indicate dangerously high levels of it.

Green potatoes should not be eaten.

Answer 7

The potato sticks out of the ground and the sun shines on it as it is growing and they call it sunburnt, hence green potatos. That is why they always cover the potato with dirt or straw while growing.

Answer 8

I've heard it is because they were too close to the surface.

And it is spelled "potatoes" when it is plural.

Answer 9

Overexposure to light or cold(mainly light)

Answer 10

to much light ,it should be kept on the dark.