Peanut history and it's phytochemicals.

Contents

• Basic Botanical Data of Peanut.
• Peanuts:Arachis hypogaea L.
• Whole Plant Description of Peanut.
• Distribution of Arachis hypogaea L,Peanut,groundnut:Eco-geographic Distribution.
• Taxonomy of genus Arachis.
• History and Origin of Arachis hypogaea L,Peanut,groundnut.
• Peanut: Phytochemicals and nutrients.
• Uses of Arachis hypogaea L.Peanut,groundnut.
• Folk Medicine and Medicinal Uses of Peanut.
• Cooking Peanut.
• Optimization of extraction methods for identification of selected phytochemicals in peanuts.Arachis hypogaea L.
• Research Update:Peanuts.Arachis hypogaea L.

History and Origin of Arachis hypogaea L,Peanut,groundnut.:

They were first grown by the Inca of ancient Peru.originated in South America (Bolivia and adjoining countries); The thin, tan, netted pods usually contains two seeds. However, depending on the variety, the number of kernels can vary from one or two to five and seven. A papery skin covers the oval creamy-tan seeds. The skin may be white, cream, brown, red, or piebald (red and white).Their sizes vary from the small Spanish and Valencia nuts, which are rounder and used mainly for peanut butter, to the larger oval Virginia variety that is usually roasted. In spite of its unusual growing habits, the peanut looks like the common garden pea when it stands in the field. Later, after it has flowered and pollination has taken place, the plant bends toward the earth.

 Peanuts were first introduced to the Portuguese slave traders who took them to Africa and elsewhere around the world. African slaves then brought them to the US, which explains why the first names used were of the Congo origin (pindar and goober). But it was not until early in the 20th century that the popularity of the peanut began to soar. In 1904, at the St. Louis World Fair, peanut butter was seen for the first time and promoted as a health food. Children quickly adopted this idea, which should have immediately made parents suspicious. Since then, about half of the peanuts produced in the US goes into making peanut butter. George Washington Carver (1864-1943), a major promoter of the peanut, is credited with developing more than 300 different uses for the peanut. Born to Missouri slave parents, he graduated from the Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (now Iowa State University). He became a research director of the now Tuskegee University, where he experimented with and developed many uses for, the peanut. He continually urged cotton farmers to switch to growing peanuts for a cash crop.


 Peanut Origins:

 The common peanut has become so universally enjoyed throughout the world that most people never connect it with South America, its place of origin. The ancient Incas of Peru first cultivated wild peanuts and offered them to the sun god as part of their religious ceremonials. Their name for the peanut was ynchic

 Peanut cultivation was also active in Ecuador as well as Bolivia and Brazil. The Brazilian peanut farmers were Indian tribal women who wouldn't allow the men to tend the plants, believing the plants would only produce peanuts under their own care.

 As evidence of the early existence of this legume, preserved peanut shells were found at many archeological excavations in Peru dating back to 2500 BCE. Scientists believe it was the dry climate of the region that kept the shells so well preserved.

 During excavations of the Moche people's burial graves in Peru, archeologists discovered earthenware pots with carved replicas of peanut shells on the covers, indicating the importance of the peanut as a dietary staple. The pottery dated back from 100 to 800 CE.

 The Ancon people, who lived on the Peruvian coast, believed in an afterlife and prepared the dead with items they recognized as necessary for their journey. Other archeological finds in the Inca burial sites were string pouches that contained peanuts along with maize, beans, and peppers, provisions to sustain the departed in the next world.

 During the early 1500's South America was invaded by the Spanish and the Portuguese who were inquisitive about many new food plants they had never seen before, among them were peanuts the natives called mandi and mandubi.

 Not long after, natives in the Caribbean were cultivating peanuts as an important food. A Spanish explorer's account from 1535 describes a plant called mani found growing in Hispaniola, an island in the West Indies:

They sow and harvest it. It is a very common crop . . . about the size of a pine nut in the shell. They consider it a healthy food.

A Spanish explorer's account from 1535

 When the explorers first encountered peanuts, they were hesitant to eat them. Bernabe Cobo, a Catholic priest living in Peru in the early 1600's, declared that eating peanuts caused the body discomforts such as dizziness and headaches. In general, these European conquistadors were rather skeptical about many of the "new foods." At first they thought peanuts were a substitute for almonds. Some even attempted to roast and grind them to create a new kind of coffee, but these did not gain acceptance. Eventually the Indians shared their knowledge of peanut cultivation with the Europeans and even traded peanuts for some Spanish goods.

 When peanut plants were brought back to Spain and Portugal, they struggled to survive in a climate that was not warm enough. The few peanuts harvested did not earn an enthusiastic reception. Rather, they were considered bizarre.


 Peanuts and the Slave Trade:

 But, don't weep for the peanuts. They were well received in Africa when they arrived with the Portuguese who introduced the plants during their slave trading missions. India, too, met up with the peanut because of the Portuguese.

 Spain's active trade business began in the 1500s with routes that connected the West Coast of Mexico across the Pacific to the Philippines. The galleons that left the port of Acapulco carried silver, peanuts and other precious New World items to Manila where they were traded to buy spices, silk, and porcelain. Via the trade routes, peanuts were soon familiar food items in China,and the East Indies.

 By the late 1600s active slave trading brought black slaves to the American south to work the plantations, though it wasn't until the 1700s and 1800s that thousands of them were taken from their homes in West Africa to the Southern plantations. To keep the slaves nourished during the long voyage across the Atlantic, the captors took along peanuts and maize for their sustenance.

 Once here in America, the slaves planted their familiar comfort food, the peanut, which they ate along with corn, beans and greens. The slave owners, however, only fed the peanuts to their cows and pigs, rejecting them as food unfit for humans to consume.
 


 Peanuts Feed the Troops:

 This snobbish attitude was completely reversed during the Civil War of the 1860s, when food shortages were a serious concern. Peanuts soon became appreciated as they nourished the soldiers from both the North and the South. Many days, there was nothing else to eat but peanuts. At other times troops ground and boiled them to create a substitute coffee.

 During times when they were camped, the soldiers roasted peanuts over the fire. When they were marching, soldiers often found raw peanuts the day's only meal; they even began to embrace them. It may have been the soldiers who corrupted the peanut's Bantu name nguba when they called them goobers or goober peas. Peanuts were also called pinders, ground peas, and groundnuts.

 The painful period during the Civil War struggle inspired one Confederate soldier's poetic talents to create this verse:

     Sitting by the roadside, on a summer day,
    Chatting with my messmates, passing time away,
   Lying in the shadows, underneath the trees,
  Goodness how delicious, eating goober peas!
   Peas! Peas! Peas! Peas! Eating goober peas!
    Goodness how delicious, eating goober peas!

one Confederate soldier's poetic,during the Civil War of the 1860s

 The Union soldiers who came back home introduced their friends and families to the joys of the peanut, and turned many a negative attitude around. Not long after the war, a number of soldiers who couldn't find work began roasting and selling bags of peanuts on the streets along with entrepreneurs who saw a financial opportunity.

 Topping the list as a favorite snack food, roasted peanuts began to show up everywhere. In 1870, the famous Phineas T. Barnum of the renowned Barnum and Bailey Circus offered bags of roasted peanuts for sale at circus performances. People loved them. What followed brought the peanut fame and favor. Roasted peanuts appeared at baseball games. The "peanut gallery" was the name given to the cheap balcony seats at the theater where patrons snacked on voluminous quantities of peanuts in the upstairs seating.

 

 Peanuts, a Sticky Business:

 Peanut butter had its start as the all-American food in 1890 when a doctor in Missouri created it for his elderly patients in an attempt to offer them good nourishment that didn't require chewing and was easy on the digestive system. The doctor's recipe contained only roasted peanuts ground into a spreadable paste. Soon entrepreneurs began adding sugar and salt to enhance their product that quickly became popular. Peanut butter rose to fame when it met up with its ideal partners--jams and jellies, and the peanut butter and jelly sandwich was born. Moms loved its convenience and accepted it as healthful food for the kids.

 Though we tend to think of peanut butter as an American innovation, it was actually the Indians in South America who ground peanuts into a gooey sticky paste, a practice that dates back about 3,000 years. Their peanut butter was made by hand and never reached the smooth creamy texture of ours. Today we create desserts that combine peanut butter and chocolate, but we weren't the first to create this combination either. The ancient Incas made use of their local resources and flavored their peanut butter with cocoa beans that were ground into a powder and pounded into the peanut mixture.

 Today peanut butter is the end product of one half of the peanut crops grown in the United States. Interestingly, peanuts began their existence in the Americas and journeyed across oceans to Asia and Africa only to return to the Americas. The southern states of Georgia, Texas, Alabama, and North Carolina, where peanuts made their American return, still remain the U.S. peanut-growing center. More peanuts are eaten in the United States than walnuts, almonds, and hazelnuts combined.

 Think about the many ways peanuts have become connected to our culture--they are eaten at baseball games, fed to elephants at the zoo, munched on at the circus, served at beer parlors, and offered as airline snacks. At home we may include them as a typical party snack or pack a few peanut butter cookies in a kids' lunchbox. You can't get more American than fixing the occasional peanut butter and jelly sandwich or snacking on chocolate covered peanuts. And if you enjoy cooking, you may have even prepared peanut soup, peanut sauce, peanut brittle, or even a rich peanut butter pie. Today, Americans top the list as the largest consumer of peanut butter.

 The Planters Peanut Company began in the early 1900s. It was in 1916 that their mascot, Mr. Peanut, who stands tall with top hat, monicle, and cane, made his debut. Mr. Peanut was the winning entry in a contest the company's owner, Amadeo Obici, offered to school children.


 Peanuts were thoroughly enjoying the limelight and appeared in many news headlines in 1977 when Jimmy Carter, a Plains, Georgia peanut farmer, became President of the United States.

 If you were to combine all the peanuts grown in the world annually, you would have a grand harvest of more than 26 million tons of peanuts. China, India, and the United States are the world's largest growers. Here's a trivia tidbit you might try out at your next party: How many peanuts does it take to make a one-pound jar of peanut butter? The answer, 720.

Reference:

• 1.Peanut history and it's phytochemicals.

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♣ last edit date:15th,Oct.2010.