For boiled sweetpotato we investigated whether we could identify any relationship between variation in cell wall components and textural measurements... Freeze dried sweetpotato root samples were provided by CIP Uganda and cell walls were prepared from these. The monosaccharide composition of these cell wall samples was determined. In Uganda, the cooking time for these samples had been established previously. No correlation was observed between cooking time and the level of any cell wall monosaccharide. Of particular value in this project, is the use of Fourier Transform infraRed (FTiR) spectroscopy to investigate differences in the degree of esterification of pectin, a major cell wall component. We analysed cell wall preparations from 18 genotypes for which cooking time data were available (from CIP Uganda). Ratio of signals at 1730 / 1625 cm-1 and 1415 / 1235 cm-1 can be used to assess the relative level of pectin methylation. Although there was significant variation in this ratio between the samples from the different genotypes, these was no significant correlation of this parameter with cooking time. Our data indicate clearly that there is no simple correlation between cell wall pectin methylation level or monosaccharide content and textural properties.