‘Heukharang’ is a pure line variety selected from native seeds; this lettuce variety has stronger leaves and longer foliar than traditional red skirt varieties. From 2011 to 2015, productivity was tested by collection and pure line selection. The new breed, ‘Heukharang’, was found to be narrow and black oval with anthocyanin pigments evenly spread over the leaves. ‘Heukharang’ had a stronger bitter taste than the Red Skirt variety, since its lactucin content was >100 times higher. This cultivar also showed a much higher content of chlorogenic acid and tocopherol. This new variety ‘Heukharang’ can thus be recommended as a variety that can fully utilize functional ingredients in lettuce, since it is close to the existing variety of red skirt lettuce and has more functional ingredients (Registration No. 7569).

In order to select sweetpotato varieties with excellent tip characteristics, we investigated the appearance, yield, and functional compounds in 32 domestic sweetpotato varieties. During the cultivation period, the total production of sweetpotato tips among the different variety ranged from 1,780 to 9,923 g/m², with that of the Gogeonmi variety being the highest. The lutein content among varieties ranged from 21.7 to 47.0 mg/100 g and was highest in the Juhwangmi variety, whereas the ß-carotene content ranged from 25.5 to 183.4 mg/100 g and was highest in the Hayanmi variety. The total polyphenol content ranged from 30.7 to 74.4 mg CAE/g, and it was high in the Pungwonmi, Daeyumi, and Dahomi varieties at 74.4, 73.8, and 72.9 mg CAE/g, respectively, whereas the DPPH radical scavenging activity of tips ranged from 88.6% to 91.6%, with Gogeonmi and Healthymi showing the highest value of 91.6%. ABTS radical scavenging activity was found to be lowest in the Yeonjami variety at 86%, whereas the remaining 31 varieties showed values in excess of 96%. ABTS radical scavenging activity showed a high positive correlation with total polyphenol content. On the basis of these analyses, we identified Juhwangmi with high lutein content, Hayanmi with high beta-carotene content and high yield, and Gogeonmi with high DPPH radical scavenging activity and high yield, as being suitable varieties for tip cultivation. We anticipate that these sweetpotato varieties with excellent tip characteristics will be used as parents for the breeding of varieties for vegetable use.