Breeding of a new reddish-purple fleshed sweetpotato cultivar, 'Sakurahonoka', with high yield for processing use.

We developed a new reddish-purple fleshed sweetpotato (RFSP) cultivar, 'Sakurahonoka', with high yield for processing use. Released in 2025, the most distinctive characteristic of Sakurahonoka is its flesh color. The dominant aglycone (anthocyanidin-moiety) of anthocyanin (aglycone) in Sakurahonoka is pelargonidin, which distinctly varied from the purple-fleshed sweetpotato (PFSP) cultivars, whose dominant aglycones were peonidin or cyanidin. Sakurahonoka demonstrated a higher marketable root yield than the two major PFSP cultivars in the Kyushu region of Japan: 'Ayamurasaki' and 'Murasakimasari'. Additionally, Sakurahonoka showed a higher resistance to sweetpotato foot rot disease than Ayamurasaki. Furthermore, the color of Sakurahonoka processed as fried chips and steamed paste was unique and brighter than that of the PFSP cultivars. Food manufacturers have found that Sakurahonoka is suitable as an ingredient in fried chips and boiled-diced sweetpotato. It can be processed into a paste; however, its steamed sweetpotato is fibrous and requires effort to be strained. Thus, Sakurahonoka is an epoch-making RFSP that improves the color variation in sweetpotato-processed foods.