1.
Greek language
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Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of written records and its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history, other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic and many other writing systems. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, during antiquity, Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and many places beyond. It would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire, the language is spoken by at least 13.2 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the Greek diaspora. Greek roots are used to coin new words for other languages, Greek. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, the earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the worlds oldest recorded living language. Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now extinct Anatolian languages, the Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods, Proto-Greek, the unrecorded but assumed last ancestor of all known varieties of Greek. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants entered the Greek peninsula sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age, Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Mycenaean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 15th century BC onwards, Ancient Greek, in its various dialects, the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of the ancient Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman Empire, after the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial bilingualism of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. The origin of Christianity can also be traced through Koine Greek, Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, the continuation of Koine Greek in Byzantine Greece, up to the demise of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century. Much of the written Greek that was used as the language of the Byzantine Empire was an eclectic middle-ground variety based on the tradition of written Koine. Modern Greek, Stemming from Medieval Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the Byzantine period and it is the language used by the modern Greeks, and, apart from Standard Modern Greek, there are several dialects of it. In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia, the historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language is often emphasised. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language and it is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, Homeric Greek is probably closer to demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English, Greek is spoken by about 13 million people, mainly in Greece, Albania and Cyprus, but also worldwide by the large Greek diaspora. Greek is the language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population
2.
Protein
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Proteins are large biomolecules, or macromolecules, consisting of one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, responding to stimuli, a linear chain of amino acid residues is called a polypeptide. A protein contains at least one long polypeptide, short polypeptides, containing less than 20–30 residues, are rarely considered to be proteins and are commonly called peptides, or sometimes oligopeptides. The individual amino acid residues are bonded together by peptide bonds, the sequence of amino acid residues in a protein is defined by the sequence of a gene, which is encoded in the genetic code. In general, the code specifies 20 standard amino acids, however. Sometimes proteins have non-peptide groups attached, which can be called prosthetic groups or cofactors, proteins can also work together to achieve a particular function, and they often associate to form stable protein complexes. Once formed, proteins only exist for a period of time and are then degraded and recycled by the cells machinery through the process of protein turnover. A proteins lifespan is measured in terms of its half-life and covers a wide range and they can exist for minutes or years with an average lifespan of 1–2 days in mammalian cells. Abnormal and or misfolded proteins are degraded more rapidly due to being targeted for destruction or due to being unstable. Like other biological macromolecules such as polysaccharides and nucleic acids, proteins are essential parts of organisms, many proteins are enzymes that catalyse biochemical reactions and are vital to metabolism. Proteins also have structural or mechanical functions, such as actin and myosin in muscle and the proteins in the cytoskeleton, other proteins are important in cell signaling, immune responses, cell adhesion, and the cell cycle. In animals, proteins are needed in the diet to provide the essential amino acids that cannot be synthesized, digestion breaks the proteins down for use in the metabolism. Methods commonly used to study structure and function include immunohistochemistry, site-directed mutagenesis, X-ray crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance. Most proteins consist of linear polymers built from series of up to 20 different L-α-amino acids, all proteinogenic amino acids possess common structural features, including an α-carbon to which an amino group, a carboxyl group, and a variable side chain are bonded. Only proline differs from this structure as it contains an unusual ring to the N-end amine group. The amino acids in a chain are linked by peptide bonds. Once linked in the chain, an individual amino acid is called a residue, and the linked series of carbon, nitrogen. The peptide bond has two forms that contribute some double-bond character and inhibit rotation around its axis, so that the alpha carbons are roughly coplanar
3.
Seed
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A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering. The formation of the seed is part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, Seeds are the product of the ripened ovule, after fertilization by pollen and some growth within the mother plant. The embryo is developed from the zygote and the coat from the integuments of the ovule. Seed plants now dominate biological niches on land, from forests to both in hot and cold climates. The term seed also has a meaning that antedates the above—anything that can be sown, e. g. seed potatoes. In the case of sunflower and corn seeds, what is sown is the seed enclosed in a shell or husk, many structures commonly referred to as seeds are actually dry fruits. Plants producing berries are called baccate, sunflower seeds are sometimes sold commercially while still enclosed within the hard wall of the fruit, which must be split open to reach the seed. Different groups of plants have other modifications, the stone fruits have a hardened fruit layer fused to. Nuts are the one-seeded, hard-shelled fruit of plants with an indehiscent seed. Seeds are produced in several related groups of plants, and their manner of production distinguishes the angiosperms from the gymnosperms, angiosperm seeds are produced in a hard or fleshy structure called a fruit that encloses the seeds, hence the name. Some fruits have layers of hard and fleshy material. In gymnosperms, no special structure develops to enclose the seeds, however, the seeds do become covered by the cone scales as they develop in some species of conifer. Seed production in natural plant populations varies widely from year-to-year in response to weather variables, insects and diseases, over a 20-year period, for example, forests composed of loblolly pine and shortleaf pine produced from 0 to nearly 5 million sound pine seeds per hectare. Over this period, there were six bumper, five poor, and nine good seed crops, right after fertilization, the zygote is mostly inactive, but the primary endosperm divides rapidly to form the endosperm tissue. This tissue becomes the food the young plant will consume until the roots have developed after germination, after fertilization the ovules develop into the seeds. The ovule consists of a number of components, The funicle or seed stalk which attaches the ovule to the placenta and hence ovary or fruit wall, the nucellus, the remnant of the megasporangium and main region of the ovule where the megagametophyte develops. The micropyle, a pore or opening in the apex of the integument of the ovule where the pollen tube usually enters during the process of fertilization. The chalaza, the base of the ovule opposite the micropyle, the shape of the ovules as they develop often affects the final shape of the seeds
4.
Tuber
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Tubers are enlarged structures in some plant species used as storage organs for nutrients. They are used for the plants perennation, to energy and nutrients for regrowth during the next growing season. Stem tubers form from thickened rhizomes or stolons, common plant species with stem tubers include potato and yam. Some sources also treat modified lateral roots under the definition, these are encountered in sweet potato, cassava, the term originates from Latin tuber, meaning lump, bump, swelling. Some sources define the term tuber to mean only structures derived from stems, a stem tuber forms from thickened rhizomes or stolons. The top sides of the tuber produce shoots that grow into stems and leaves. They tend to form at the sides of the parent plant and are most often located near the soil surface, the underground stem tuber is normally a short-lived storage and regenerative organ developing from a shoot that branches off a mature plant. The offsprings or new tubers are attached to a parent tuber or form at the end of a hypogeogenous rhizome, some plants also form smaller tubers and/or tubercules which act like seeds, producing small plants that resemble seedlings. Stem tubers generally start off as enlargements of the section of a seedling. Tuberous begonia, yams, and Cyclamen are commonly grown stem tubers, mignonette vine produces aerial stem tubers on 12-to-25-foot-tall vines, the tubers fall to the ground and grow. Enlarged stolons thicken to develop into storage organs, the tuber has all the parts of a normal stem, including nodes and internodes. The nodes are the eyes and each has a leaf scar, the nodes or eyes are arranged around the tuber in a spiral fashion beginning on the end opposite the attachment point to the stolon. The terminal bud is produced at the farthest point away from the stolon attachment, internally, a tuber is filled with starch stored in enlarged parenchyma like cells. The inside of a tuber has the cell structures of any stem, including a pith, vascular zones. The tuber is produced in one growing season and used to perennate the plant, as the main shoot develops from the tuber, the base of the shoot close to the tuber produces adventitious roots and lateral buds on the shoot. The shoot also produces stolons that are long etiolated stems, the stolon elongates during long days with the presence of high auxins levels that prevent root growth off of the stolon. Before new tuber formation begins, the stolon must be a certain age, the enzyme lipoxygenase makes a hormone, jasmonic acid, which is involved in the control of potato tuber development. The stolons are easily recognized when potato plants are grown from seeds, as the plants grow, stolons are produced around the soil surface from the nodes
5.
Endosperm
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Endosperm is a tissue produced inside the seeds of most of the flowering plants following fertilization. It surrounds the embryo and provides nutrition in the form of starch, though it can also contain oils and this can make endosperm a source of nutrition in the human diet. For example, wheat endosperm is ground into flour for bread, other examples of endosperm that forms the bulk of the edible portion are coconut meat and coconut water, and corn. Some plants, such as orchids, lack endosperm in their seeds, in more derived flowering plants the embryo occupies most of the seed and the endosperm is non developed or consumed before the seed matures. Endosperm is formed when the two sperm nuclei inside a pollen grain reach the interior of a female gametophyte, one sperm nucleus fertilizes the egg cell, forming a zygote, while the other sperm nucleus usually fuses with the binucleate central cell, forming a primary endosperm cell. That cell created in the process of double fertilization develops into the endosperm, because it is formed by a separate fertilization, the endosperm constitutes an organism separate from the growing embryo. About 70% of angiosperm species have endosperm cells that are polyploid and these are typically triploid, but can vary widely from diploid to 15n. One species of flowering plant, Nuphar polysepala, has endosperm that is diploid, resulting from the fusion of a nucleus with one. There are three types of Endosperm development, Nuclear endosperm formation - where repeated free-nuclear divisions take place, commonly referred to as liquid endosperm. Coconut water is an example of this, cellular endosperm formation - where a cell-wall formation is coincident with nuclear divisions. Acoraceae has cellular endosperm development while other monocots are helobial, the evolutionary origins of double fertilization and endosperm are unclear, attracting researcher attention for over a century. There are the two hypotheses, The double fertilization initially used to produce two identical, independent embryos. Later these embryos acquired different roles, one growing into the mature organism, thus the early endosperm was probably diploid, like the embryo. Some gymnosperms, such as Ephedra, may produce twin embryos by double fertilization, either of these two embryos is capable of filling in the seed, but normally only one develops further. Also, most basal angiosperms still contain the embryo sac. Endosperm is the remnant of the actual gametophyte, similar to the complex multicellular gametophytes found in gymnosperms. In this case, acquisition of the nucleus from the sperm cell is a later evolutionary step. This nucleus may provide the organism with some control over endosperm development
6.
Fruit anatomy
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Fruit anatomy is the internal structure of fruits. Fruits are the mature ovary or ovaries of one or more flowers, in fleshy fruits, the outer layer is the pericarp, which is the tissue that develops from the ovary wall of the flower and surrounds the seeds. But in some seemingly pericarp fruits, the portion is not derived from the ovary. For example, in the fruit of the tree the edible portion is an aril. The outer covering of a seed is tough because the parent plant needs to protect the plant growing, some plants commonly called vegetables, such as cucumbers, tomatoes, and squash, are actually fruits. Fruits are found in three main categories, Simple fruits are formed from a single ovary and may contain one or many seeds. They can be fleshy or dry. Berries and drupes are examples of simple fleshy fruits, pomes are both accessory fruits and simple fruits. Aggregate fruits are formed from a compound flower and contain many ovaries. Multiple fruits are formed from the ovaries of multiple flowers. An example of a fruit is pineapple. In berries and drupes, the forms the edible tissue around the seeds. In other fruits such as Citrus stone fruits only some layers of the pericarp are eaten, in accessory fruits, other tissues develop into the edible portion of the fruit instead, for example the receptacle of the flower in strawberries. In a citrus fruit, the epicarp and mesocarp make up the peel, epicarp is a botanical term for the outermost layer of the pericarp. The epicarp forms the outer skin of the fruit, if there is one. The epicarp is sometimes called the exocarp, or, especially in Citrus, in citrus fruits, the flavedo constitutes the peripheral surface of the pericarp. When ripe, the cells contain carotenoids inside chromoplasts, which, in a previous developmental stage. This hormonally controlled progression in development is responsible for the change of color from green to yellow upon ripening
7.
Phaseolus vulgaris
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Phaseolus vulgaris, the common bean, is a herbaceous annual plant grown worldwide for its edible dry seed or unripe fruit. Raw or undercooked beans contain the toxin phytohaemagglutinin and its leaf is also occasionally used as a vegetable and the straw as fodder. The common bean is a variable species that has a long history of cultivation. All wild members of the species have a habit, but many cultivars are classified as bush beans or pole beans. These include the bean, the navy bean, the pinto bean. The other major types of commercially grown bean are the runner bean, Beans are grown in every continent except Antarctica. Brazil and India are the largest producers of dry beans, while China produces, by far, worldwide,23 million tonnes of dry common beans and 17.1 million tonnes of green beans were grown in 2010. Along with squash and maize, beans are one of the Three Sisters central to indigenous North American agriculture, the common bean is a highly variable species with a long history. Bush varieties form erect bushes 20–60 cm tall, while pole or running varieties form vines 2–3 m long, all varieties bear alternate, green or purple leaves, which are divided into three oval, smooth-edged leaflets, each 6–15 cm long and 3–11 cm wide. The white, pink, or purple flowers are about 1 cm long and these may be green, yellow, black, or purple in color, each containing 4–6 beans. The beans are smooth, plump, kidney-shaped, up to 1.5 cm long, range widely in color, and are often mottled in two or more colors. Similar to other beans, the bean is high in starch, protein, and dietary fiber, and is an excellent source of iron, potassium, selenium, molybdenum, thiamine, vitamin B6. Dry beans will keep indefinitely if stored in a cool, dry place, dried beans are almost always cooked by boiling, often after being soaked in water for several hours. While the soaking is not strictly necessary, it shortens cooking time, in addition, soaking beans removes 5 to 10% of the gas-producing sugars that can cause flatulence for some people. The methods include simple overnight soaking and the power soak method in which beans are boiled for three minutes and then set aside for 2–4 hours, before cooking, the soaking water is drained off and discarded. Dry common beans take longer to cook than most pulses, cooking times vary from one to four hours, in Mexico, Central America, and South America, the traditional spice used with beans is epazote, which is also said to aid digestion. In East Asia, a type of seaweed, kombu, is added to beans as they cook for the same purpose, salt, sugar, and acidic foods such as tomatoes may harden uncooked beans, resulting in seasoned beans at the expense of slightly longer cooking times. Dry beans may also be cooked and canned as refried beans, or whole with water, salt
8.
Ricinus
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Ricinus communis, the castorbean or castor-oil-plant, is a species of perennial flowering plant in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae. It is the species in the monotypic genus, Ricinus. The evolution of castor and its relation to other species are currently being studied using modern genetic tools and it reproduces with a mixed pollination system which favors selfing by geitonogamy but at the same time can be an out-crosser by anemophily or entomophily. Its seed is the bean, which, despite its name, is not a true bean. Castor is indigenous to the southeastern Mediterranean Basin, Eastern Africa, and India, castor seed is the source of castor oil, which has a wide variety of uses. The seeds contain between 40% and 60% oil that is rich in triglycerides, mainly ricinolein, the seed also contains ricin, a water-soluble toxin, which is also present in lower concentrations throughout the plant. An unrelated plant species, Fatsia japonica, is similar in appearance, Ricinus communis can vary greatly in its growth habit and appearance. The variability has been increased by breeders who have selected a range of cultivars for leaf and flower colours and it is a fast-growing, suckering shrub that can reach the size of a small tree, but it is not cold hardy. The glossy leaves are 15–45 centimetres long, long-stalked, alternate and palmate with 5–12 deep lobes with toothed segments. In some varieties they start off dark purple or bronze when young, gradually changing to a dark green, sometimes with a reddish tinge. Plants with the leaves can be found growing next to those with green leaves. The stems also vary in pigmentation, the fruit capsules of some varieties are more showy than the flowers. The flowers are borne in terminal inflorescences of green or, in some varieties, shades of red. The fruit is a spiny, greenish capsule containing large, oval, shiny, bean-like, castor seeds have a warty appendage called the caruncle, which is a type of elaiosome. The caruncle promotes the dispersal of the seed by ants, the name Ricinus is a Latin word for tick, the seed is so named because it has markings and a bump at the end that resemble certain ticks. The common name castor oil probably comes from its use as a replacement for castoreum and it has another common name, palm of Christ, or Palma Christi, that derives from castor oils reputed ability to heal wounds and cure ailments. Castor oil has many uses in medicine and other applications, an alcoholic extract of the leaf was shown, in lab rats, to protect the liver from damage from certain poisons. Methanolic extracts of the leaves of Ricinus communis were used in testing against eight pathogenic bacteria in rats
9.
Wheat
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Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region but now cultivated worldwide. In 2016, world production of wheat was 749 million tonnes, making it the second most-produced cereal after maize, since 1960, world production of wheat and other grain crops has tripled and is expected to grow further through the middle of the 21st Century. This grain is grown on land area than any other commercial food. World trade in wheat is greater than for all other crops combined, globally, wheat is the leading source of vegetal protein in human food, having a protein content of about 13%, which is relatively high compared to other major cereals and staple foods. The archaeological record suggests that wheat was first cultivated in the regions of the Fertile Crescent around 9600 BCE. In a small part of the population, gluten – the major part of wheat protein – can trigger coeliac disease, non-coeliac gluten sensitivity, gluten ataxia. Cultivation and repeated harvesting and sowing of the grains of wild grasses led to the creation of domestic strains, in domesticated wheat, grains are larger, and the seeds remain attached to the ear by a toughened rachis during harvesting. In wild strains, a more fragile rachis allows the ear to easily shatter, as the traits that improve wheat as a food source also involve the loss of the plants natural seed dispersal mechanisms, highly domesticated strains of wheat cannot survive in the wild. Cultivation of wheat began to spread beyond the Fertile Crescent after about 8000 BCE, jared Diamond traces the spread of cultivated emmer wheat starting in the Fertile Crescent sometime before 8800 BCE. Archaeological analysis of wild emmer indicates that it was first cultivated in the southern Levant with finds dating back as far as 9600 BCE, Genetic analysis of wild einkorn wheat suggests that it was first grown in the Karacadag Mountains in southeastern Turkey. Dated archeological remains of wheat in settlement sites near this region, including those at Abu Hureyra in Syria. With the anomalous exception of two grains from Iraq ed-Dubb, the earliest carbon-14 date for einkorn wheat remains at Abu Hureyra is 7800 to 7500 years BCE. Remains of harvested emmer from several sites near the Karacadag Range have been dated to between 8600 and 8400 BCE, that is, in the Neolithic period and these remains were dated by Willem van Zeist and his assistant Johanna Bakker-Heeres to 8800 BCE. They also concluded that the settlers of Tell Aswad did not develop this form of emmer themselves, the cultivation of emmer reached Greece, Cyprus and India by 6500 BCE, Egypt shortly after 6000 BCE, and Germany and Spain by 5000 BCE. The early Egyptians were developers of bread and the use of the oven, by 3000 BCE, wheat had reached the British Isles and Scandinavia. A millennium later it reached China, the oldest evidence for hexaploid wheat has been confirmed through DNA analysis of wheat seeds, dating to around 6400-6200 BCE, recovered from Çatalhöyük. The first identifiable bread wheat with sufficient gluten for yeasted breads has been identified using DNA analysis in samples from a dating to approximately 1350 BCE at Assiros in Macedonia. From Asia, wheat continued to spread throughout Europe, in the British Isles, wheat straw was used for roofing in the Bronze Age, and was in common use until the late 19th century
10.
Rye
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Rye is a grass grown extensively as a grain, a cover crop and a forage crop. It is a member of the tribe and is closely related to barley. Rye grain is used for flour, rye bread, rye beer, crisp bread, some whiskeys, some vodkas and it can also be eaten whole, either as boiled rye berries or by being rolled, similar to rolled oats. Rye is a grain and should not be confused with ryegrass, which is used for lawns, pasture. Rye is one of a number of species grow wild in central and eastern Turkey. It is possible that rye traveled west from Turkey as an admixture in wheat. Since the Middle Ages people have cultivated rye widely in Central and it serves as the main bread cereal in most areas east of the French-German border and north of Hungary. In Southern Europe, it was cultivated on marginal lands, claims of much earlier cultivation of rye, at the Epipalaeolithic site of Tell Abu Hureyra in the Euphrates valley of northern Syria remain controversial. Critics point to inconsistencies in the dates, and identifications based solely on grain. Winter rye is any breed of rye planted in the fall to provide cover for the winter. It grows during warmer days of the winter when sunlight temporarily warms the plant above freezing and it is sometimes used in winter gardens and is a common nurse crop. Rye is grown primarily in Eastern, Central and Northern Europe, the main rye belt stretches from northern Germany through Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania and Latvia into central and northern Russia. Rye is also grown in North America, in South America, in Oceania, in Turkey, in Kazakhstan, production levels of rye have fallen in most of the producing nations, as of 2012. For instance, production of rye in Russia fell from 13.9 million metric tons in 1992 to 2.1 t in 2012, most rye is consumed locally or exported only to neighboring countries, rather than being shipped worldwide. Rye is highly susceptible to the ergot fungus, consumption of ergot-infected rye by humans and animals results in a serious medical condition known as ergotism. Ergotism can cause physical and mental harm, including convulsions, miscarriage, necrosis of digits, hallucinations. Historically, damp northern countries that have depended on rye as a staple crop were subject to epidemics of this condition. There have been occurrence of ergotism with periods where there were incidents of people persecuted for being witches
"Aleurone". New International Encyclopedia. 1905.
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