those eaten immediately. The harvested tubers can be stored over several months, however the fructooligosaccharide content decreases over time. If the storage temperature keeps at 1 degree, the turnover from fructooligosaccharides to glucose, fructose and sucrose will also slow down. Medicinal use Yacón is assumed to show different health promoting effects. The tubers contain phytoalexines, phenolic compounds and high concentrations of fructanes which are considered as bioactive compounds which are beneficial for human health. The leaves have been shown to be radical scavenging, cytoprotective and anti-hyperglycemic active. Generally, products of yacón are intensively investigated for medicinal usage because of its antidiabetic and hypoglycaemic effect. In the Andean folk medicine, yacón is used against liver and kidney disease whereas it is used against diabetes and digestions problems in Bolivia. Religious use In colonial times, yacón consumption was identified with a Catholic religious celebration held at the time of an earlier Inca feast. In the Moche era, it may have been food for a special occasion. Effigies of edible food may have been placed at Moche burials for the nourishment of the dead, as offerings to lords of the other world, or in commemoration of a certain occasion. Moche depicted such yacón on their ceramics. Diseases and control strategies The yacón plant gets infected by different species such as nematodes, bacteria, fungi, viruses and insects. The root-knot nematode (Meloidogyne incognita) leads to crop loss due to the various symptoms as poor growth and roots with characteristic galls. Following, disease free propagation material is necessary to intensify the yacon production. A safe procedure is to take shoot axillary buds as ideal explants and a disinfection treatment with a sodium hypochlorite aqueous solution. Rhizoctonia sp. can lead to rot in the root and crown of the yacón plant. If 50% of the roots are infected, the plants become unmarketable and inedible. The rot and discoloration occur not only the tubers but also on other plant parts, especially the offsets (“seeds”) and rootstock. Therefore, the use of clean and healthy yacón offsets and rootstocks for propagation are important to reduce disease spreading. Also, insects like the sunflower caterpillar (Chlosyne lacinia saundersii) can cause damage by feeding on yacón leaves. The presence of natural enemies and trap plants are control strategies to reduce herbivore damage in yacón cultivation. Trap plants, for example sunflowers, can be planted between yacón plants. As they are more attractive to insects,