Fruit
In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means. Edible fruits, in particular, have propagated with the movements of humans and animals in a symbiotic relationship as a means for seed dispersal and nutrition. Accordingly, fruits account for a substantial fraction of the world's agricultural output, some have acquired extensive cultural and symbolic meanings. In common language usage, "fruit" means the fleshy seed-associated structures of a plant that are sweet or sour, edible in the raw state, such as apples, grapes, lemons and strawberries. On the other hand, in botanical usage, "fruit" includes many structures that are not called "fruits", such as bean pods, corn kernels and wheat grains; the section of a fungus that produces spores is called a fruiting body. Many common terms for seeds and fruit do not correspond to the botanical classifications. In culinary terminology, a fruit is any sweet-tasting plant part a botanical fruit.
However, in botany, a fruit is the ripened ovary or carpel that contains seeds, a nut is a type of fruit and not a seed, a seed is a ripened ovule. Examples of culinary "vegetables" and nuts that are botanically fruit include corn, eggplant, sweet pepper, tomato. In addition, some spices, such as allspice and chili pepper, are fruits. In contrast, rhubarb is referred to as a fruit, because it is used to make sweet desserts such as pies, though only the petiole of the rhubarb plant is edible, edible gymnosperm seeds are given fruit names, e.g. ginkgo nuts and pine nuts. Botanically, a cereal grain, such as corn, rice, or wheat, is a kind of fruit, termed a caryopsis. However, the fruit wall is thin and is fused to the seed coat, so all of the edible grain is a seed; the outer edible layer, is the pericarp, formed from the ovary and surrounding the seeds, although in some species other tissues contribute to or form the edible portion. The pericarp may be described in three layers from outer to inner, the epicarp and endocarp.
Fruit that bears a prominent pointed terminal projection is said to be beaked. A fruit results from maturation of one or more flowers, the gynoecium of the flower forms all or part of the fruit. Inside the ovary/ovaries are one or more ovules where the megagametophyte contains the egg cell. After double fertilization, these ovules will become seeds; the ovules are fertilized in a process that starts with pollination, which involves the movement of pollen from the stamens to the stigma of flowers. After pollination, a tube grows from the pollen through the stigma into the ovary to the ovule and two sperm are transferred from the pollen to the megagametophyte. Within the megagametophyte one of the two sperm unites with the egg, forming a zygote, the second sperm enters the central cell forming the endosperm mother cell, which completes the double fertilization process; the zygote will give rise to the embryo of the seed, the endosperm mother cell will give rise to endosperm, a nutritive tissue used by the embryo.
As the ovules develop into seeds, the ovary begins to ripen and the ovary wall, the pericarp, may become fleshy, or form a hard outer covering. In some multiseeded fruits, the extent to which the flesh develops is proportional to the number of fertilized ovules; the pericarp is differentiated into two or three distinct layers called the exocarp and endocarp. In some fruits simple fruits derived from an inferior ovary, other parts of the flower, fuse with the ovary and ripen with it. In other cases, the sepals, petals and/or stamens and style of the flower fall off; when such other floral parts are a significant part of the fruit, it is called an accessory fruit. Since other parts of the flower may contribute to the structure of the fruit, it is important to study flower structure to understand how a particular fruit forms. There are three general modes of fruit development: Apocarpous fruits develop from a single flower having one or more separate carpels, they are the simplest fruits. Syncarpous fruits develop from a single gynoecium having two or more carpels fused together.
Multiple fruits form from many different flowers. Plant scientists have grouped fruits into three main groups, simple fruits, aggregate fruits, composite or multiple fruits; the groupings are not evolutionarily relevant, since many diverse plant taxa may be in the same group, but reflect how the flower organs are arranged and how the fruits develop. Simple fruits can be either dry or fleshy, result from the ripening of a simple or compound ovary in a flower with only one pistil. Dry fruits may be either dehiscent, or indehiscent. Types of dry, simple fruits, examples of each, include: achene – most seen in aggregate fruits capsule – caryopsis – cypsela – an achene-like fruit derived from the individual florets in a capitulum. Fibrous drupe – follicle – is formed from a single carpel, opens by one suture
Biomolecule
A biomolecule or biological molecule is a loosely used term for molecules and ions that are present in organisms, essential to some biological process such as cell division, morphogenesis, or development. Biomolecules include large macromolecules such as proteins, carbohydrates and nucleic acids, as well as small molecules such as primary metabolites, secondary metabolites, natural products. A more general name for this class of material is biological materials. Biomolecules are endogenous but may be exogenous. For example, pharmaceutical drugs may be natural products or semisynthetic or they may be synthetic. Biology and its subsets of biochemistry and molecular biology study biomolecules and their reactions. Most biomolecules are organic compounds, just four elements—oxygen, carbon and nitrogen—make up 96% of the human body's mass, but many other elements, such as the various biometals, are present in small amounts. The uniformity of specific types of molecules and of some metabolic pathways as invariant features between the diversity of life forms is called "biochemical universals" or "theory of material unity of the living beings", a unifying concept in biology, along with cell theory and evolution theory.
A diverse range of biomolecules exist, including: Small molecules: Lipids, fatty acids, sterols, monosaccharides Vitamins Hormones, neurotransmitters Metabolites Monomers and polymers: Nucleosides are molecules formed by attaching a nucleobase to a ribose or deoxyribose ring. Examples of these include cytidine, adenosine and thymidine. Nucleosides can be phosphorylated by specific kinases in producing nucleotides. Both DNA and RNA are polymers, consisting of long, linear molecules assembled by polymerase enzymes from repeating structural units, or monomers, of mononucleotides. DNA uses the deoxynucleotides C, G, A, T, while RNA uses the ribonucleotides C, G, A, U. Modified bases are common, as found in ribosomal RNA or transfer RNAs or for discriminating the new from old strands of DNA after replication; each nucleotide is made of a pentose and one to three phosphate groups. They contain carbon, oxygen and phosphorus, they serve as sources of chemical energy, participate in cellular signaling, are incorporated into important cofactors of enzymatic reactions.
DNA structure is dominated by the well-known double helix formed by Watson-Crick base-pairing of C with G and A with T. This is known as B-form DNA, is overwhelmingly the most favorable and common state of DNA. DNA can sometimes occur as single strands or as A-form or Z-form helices, in more complex 3D structures such as the crossover at Holliday junctions during DNA replication. RNA, in contrast, forms large and complex 3D tertiary structures reminiscent of proteins, as well as the loose single strands with locally folded regions that constitute messenger RNA molecules; those RNA structures contain many stretches of A-form double helix, connected into definite 3D arrangements by single-stranded loops and junctions. Examples are tRNA, ribosomes and riboswitches; these complex structures are facilitated by the fact that RNA backbone has less local flexibility than DNA but a large set of distinct conformations because of both positive and negative interactions of the extra OH on the ribose. Structured RNA molecules can do specific binding of other molecules and can themselves be recognized specifically.
Monosaccharides are the simplest form of carbohydrates with only one simple sugar. They contain an aldehyde or ketone group in their structure; the presence of an aldehyde group in a monosaccharide is indicated by the prefix aldo-. A ketone group is denoted by the prefix keto-. Examples of monosaccharides are the hexoses, fructose, Tetroses, galactose, pentoses and deoxyribose. Consumed fructose and glucose have different rates of gastric emptying, are differentially absorbed and have different metabolic fates, providing multiple opportunities for 2 different saccharides to differentially affect food intake. Most saccharides provide fuel for cellular respiration. Disaccharides are formed when two monosaccharides, or two single simple sugars, form a bond with removal of water, they can be hydrolyzed to yield their saccharin building blocks by boiling with dilute acid or reacting them with appropriate enzymes. Examples of disaccharides include sucrose and lactose. Polysaccharides are polymerized complex carbohydrates.
They have multiple simple sugars. Examples are starch and glycogen, they are large and have a complex branched connectivity. Because of their size, polysaccharides are not water-soluble, but their many hydroxy groups become hydrated individually when exposed to water, some polysaccharides form thick colloidal dispersions when heated in water. Shorter polysaccharides, with 3 - 10 monomers, are called oligosaccharides. A fluorescent indicato
Pear
The pear tree and shrub are a species of genus Pyrus, in the family Rosaceae, bearing the pomaceous fruit of the same name. Several species of pear are valued for their edible fruit and juices while others are cultivated as trees; the word pear is from Germanic pera as a loanword of Vulgar Latin pira, the plural of pirum, akin to Greek apios, of Semitic origin, meaning "fruit". The adjective pyriform or piriform means pear-shaped; the pear is native to coastal and mildly temperate regions of the Old World, from western Europe and north Africa east right across Asia. It is a medium-sized tree, reaching 10–17 metres tall with a tall, narrow crown; the leaves are alternately arranged, simple, 2–12 centimetres long, glossy green on some species, densely silvery-hairy in some others. Most pears are deciduous. Most are cold-hardy, withstanding temperatures between −25 °C and −40 °C in winter, except for the evergreen species, which only tolerate temperatures down to about −15 °C; the flowers are white tinted yellow or pink, 2–4 centimetres diameter, have five petals.
Like that of the related apple, the pear fruit is a pome, in most wild species 1–4 centimetres diameter, but in some cultivated forms up to 18 centimetres long and 8 centimetres broad. The fruit is composed of the receptacle or upper end of the flower-stalk dilated. Enclosed within its cellular flesh is the true fruit: five'cartilaginous' carpels, known colloquially as the "core". From the upper rim of the receptacle are given off the five sepals, the five petals, the numerous stamens. Pears and apples cannot always be distinguished by the form of the fruit. One major difference is. Pear cultivation in cool temperate climates extends to the remotest antiquity, there is evidence of its use as a food since prehistoric times. Many traces of it have been found in prehistoric pile dwellings around Lake Zurich; the word “pear”, or its equivalent, occurs in all the Celtic languages, while in Slavic and other dialects, differing appellations, still referring to the same thing, are found—a diversity and multiplicity of nomenclature which led Alphonse Pyramus de Candolle to infer a ancient cultivation of the tree from the shores of the Caspian to those of the Atlantic.
The pear was cultivated by the Romans, who ate the fruits raw or cooked, just like apples. Pliny's Natural History noted three dozen varieties; the Roman cookbook De re coquinaria has a recipe for a spiced, stewed-pear patina, or soufflé. A certain race of pears, with white down on the undersurface of their leaves, is supposed to have originated from P. nivalis, their fruit is chiefly used in France in the manufacture of perry. Other small-fruited pears, distinguished by their early ripening and apple-like fruit, may be referred to as P. cordata, a species found wild in western France and southwestern England. Pears have been cultivated in China for 3000 years; the genus is thought to have originated in present-day Western China in the foothills of the Tian Shan, a mountain range of Central Asia, to have spread to the north and south along mountain chains, evolving into a diverse group of over 20 recognized primary species. The enormous number of varieties of the cultivated European pear, are without doubt derived from one or two wild subspecies distributed throughout Europe, sometimes forming part of the natural vegetation of the forests.
Court accounts of Henry III of England record pears shipped from La Rochelle-Normande and presented to the King by the Sheriffs of the City of London. The French names of pears grown in English medieval gardens suggest that their reputation, at the least, was French. Asian species with medium to large edible fruit include P. pyrifolia, P. ussuriensis, P. × bretschneideri, P. × sinkiangensis, P. pashia. Other small-fruited species are used as rootstocks for the cultivated forms. According to Pear Bureau Northwest, about 3000 known varieties of pears are grown worldwide; the pear is propagated by grafting a selected variety onto a rootstock, which may be of a pear variety or quince. Quince rootstocks produce smaller trees, desirable in commercial orchards or domestic gardens. For new varieties the flowers can be cross-bred to combine desirable traits; the fruit of the pear is produced on spurs. Three species account for the vast majority of edible fruit production, the European pear Pyrus communis subsp.
Communis cultivated in Europe and North America, the Chinese white pear Pyrus ×bretschneideri, the Nashi pear Pyrus pyrifolia, both grown in eastern Asia. There are thousands of cultivars of these three species. A species grown in western China, P. sinkiangensis, P. pashia, grown in southern China and south Asia, are produced to a lesser degree. Other species are used as ornamental trees. Pear wood is close-grained a
Strawberry
The garden strawberry is a grown hybrid species of the genus Fragaria, collectively known as the strawberries. It is cultivated worldwide for its fruit; the fruit is appreciated for its characteristic aroma, bright red color, juicy texture, sweetness. It is consumed in large quantities, either fresh or in such prepared foods as preserves, pies, ice creams and chocolates. Artificial strawberry flavorings and aromas are widely used in many products like lip gloss, hand sanitizers and many others; the garden strawberry was first bred in Brittany, France, in the 1750s via a cross of Fragaria virginiana from eastern North America and Fragaria chiloensis, brought from Chile by Amédée-François Frézier in 1714. Cultivars of Fragaria × ananassa have replaced, in commercial production, the woodland strawberry, the first strawberry species cultivated in the early 17th century; the strawberry is not, from a botanical point of view, a berry. Technically, it is an aggregate accessory fruit, meaning that the fleshy part is derived not from the plant's ovaries but from the receptacle that holds the ovaries.
Each apparent "seed" on the outside of the fruit is one of the ovaries of the flower, with a seed inside it. In 2016, world production of strawberries was 9.2 million tonnes, led by China with 41% of the total. The first garden strawberry was grown in Brittany, during the late 18th century. Prior to this, wild strawberries and cultivated selections from wild strawberry species were the common source of the fruit; the strawberry fruit was mentioned in ancient Roman literature in reference to its medicinal use. The French began taking the strawberry from the forest to their gardens for harvest in the 14th century. Charles V, France's king from 1364 to 1380, had 1,200 strawberry plants in his royal garden. In the early 15th century western European monks were using the wild strawberry in their illuminated manuscripts; the strawberry is found in Italian and German art, in English miniatures. The entire strawberry plant was used to treat depressive illnesses. By the 16th century, references of cultivation of the strawberry became more common.
People began using it for its supposed medicinal properties and botanists began naming the different species. In England the demand for regular strawberry farming had increased by the mid-16th century; the combination of strawberries and cream was created by Thomas Wolsey in the court of King Henry VIII. Instructions for growing and harvesting strawberries showed up in writing in 1578. By the end of the 16th century three European species had been cited: F. vesca, F. moschata, F. viridis. The garden strawberry was transplanted from the forests and the plants would be propagated asexually by cutting off the runners. Two subspecies of F. vesca were identified: F. sylvestris alba and F. sylvestris semperflorens. The introduction of F. virginiana from Eastern North America to Europe in the 17th century is an important part of history because this species gave rise to the modern strawberry. The new species spread through the continent and did not become appreciated until the end of the 18th century.
When a French excursion journeyed to Chile in 1712, it introduced the North American strawberry plant with female flowers that resulted in the common strawberry that we have today. The Mapuche and Huilliche Indians of Chile cultivated the female strawberry species until 1551, when the Spanish came to conquer the land. In 1765, a European explorer recorded the cultivation of the Chilean strawberry. At first introduction to Europe, the plants produced no fruit, it was discovered in 1766 that the female plants could only be pollinated by plants that produced large fruit: F. moschata, F. virginiana, F. ananassa. This is when the Europeans became aware that plants had the ability to produce male-only or female-only flowers; as more large-fruit producing plants were cultivated the Chilean strawberry decreased in population in Europe, except for around Brest where the Chilean strawberry thrived. The decline of the Chilean strawberry was caused by F. ananassa. Strawberry cultivars vary in size, flavor, degree of fertility, season of ripening, liability to disease and constitution of plant.
On average, a strawberry has about 200 seeds on its external membrane. Some vary in foliage, some vary materially in the relative development of their sexual organs. In most cases, the flowers appear hermaphroditic in structure, but function as either male or female. For purposes of commercial production, plants are propagated from runners and, in general, distributed as either bare root plants or plugs. Cultivation follows one of two general models—annual plasticulture, or a perennial system of matted rows or mounds. Greenhouses produce a small amount of strawberries during the off season; the bulk of modern commercial production uses the plasticulture system. In this method, raised beds are formed each year and covered with plastic to prevent weed growth and erosion. Plants obtained from northern nurseries, are planted through holes punched in this covering, irrigation tubing is run underneath. Runners are removed from the plants as they appear, in order to encourage the plants to put most of their energy into fruit development.
At the end of the harvest season, the plastic is removed and the plants are plowed into the ground. Because strawberry plants more than a year or two old begin to decline in productivity and fruit quality, this system of replacing the plants each year allows for improved yields and denser plantings. However, because it requires a longer growing season to allow for estab
Apple
An apple is a sweet, edible fruit produced by an apple tree. Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most grown species in the genus Malus; the tree originated in Central Asia, where Malus sieversii, is still found today. Apples have been grown for thousands of years in Asia and Europe and were brought to North America by European colonists. Apples have religious and mythological significance in many cultures, including Norse and European Christian traditions. Apple trees are large. Apple cultivars are propagated by grafting onto rootstocks, which control the size of the resulting tree. There are more than 7,500 known cultivars of apples, resulting in a range of desired characteristics. Different cultivars are bred for various tastes and use, including cooking, eating raw and cider production. Trees and fruit are prone to a number of fungal and pest problems, which can be controlled by a number of organic and non-organic means. In 2010, the fruit's genome was sequenced as part of research on disease control and selective breeding in apple production.
Worldwide production of apples in 2017 was 83.1 million tonnes, with China accounting for 49.8% of the total. The apple is a deciduous tree standing 6 to 15 ft tall in cultivation and up to 30 ft in the wild; when cultivated, the size and branch density are determined by rootstock selection and trimming method. The leaves are alternately arranged dark green-colored simple ovals with serrated margins and downy undersides. Blossoms are produced in spring with the budding of the leaves and are produced on spurs and some long shoots; the 3 to 4 cm flowers are white with a pink tinge that fades, five petaled, with an inflorescence consisting of a cyme with 4–6 flowers. The central flower of the inflorescence is called the "king bloom"; the fruit matures in late summer or autumn, cultivars exist in a wide range of sizes. Commercial growers aim to produce an apple, 2 3⁄4 to 3 1⁄4 in in diameter, due to market preference; some consumers those in Japan, prefer a larger apple, while apples below 2 1⁄4 in are used for making juice and have little fresh market value.
The skin of ripe apples is red, green, pink, or russetted, though many bi- or tri-colored cultivars may be found. The skin may be wholly or russeted i.e. rough and brown. The skin is covered in a protective layer of epicuticular wax; the exocarp is pale yellowish-white, though pink or yellow exocarps occur. The original wild ancestor of Malus pumila was Malus sieversii, found growing wild in the mountains of Central Asia in southern Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Xinjiang, China. Cultivation of the species, most beginning on the forested flanks of the Tian Shan mountains, progressed over a long period of time and permitted secondary introgression of genes from other species into the open-pollinated seeds. Significant exchange with Malus sylvestris, the crabapple, resulted in current populations of apples being more related to crabapples than to the more morphologically similar progenitor Malus sieversii. In strains without recent admixture the contribution of the latter predominates. In 2010, an Italian-led consortium announced they had sequenced the complete genome of the apple in collaboration with horticultural genomicists at Washington State University, using'Golden Delicious'.
It had about 57,000 genes, the highest number of any plant genome studied to date and more genes than the human genome. This new understanding of the apple genome will help scientists identify genes and gene variants that contribute to resistance to disease and drought, other desirable characteristics. Understanding the genes behind these characteristics will help scientists perform more knowledgeable selective breeding; the genome sequence provided proof that Malus sieversii was the wild ancestor of the domestic apple—an issue, long-debated in the scientific community. The center of diversity of the genus Malus is in eastern present-day Turkey; the apple tree may have been the earliest tree that humans cultivated, growers have improved its fruits through selection over thousands of years. Alexander the Great is credited with finding dwarfed apples in Kazakhstan in 328 BCE. Winter apples, picked in late autumn and stored just above freezing, have been an important food in Asia and Europe for millennia.
Of the many Old World plants that the Spanish introduced to Chiloé Archipelago in the 16th century, apple trees became well adapted. Apples were introduced to North America by colonists in the 17th century, the first apple orchard on the North American continent was planted in Boston by Reverend William Blaxton in 1625; the only apples native to North America are crab apples, which were once called "common apples". Apple cultivars brought as seed from Europe were spread along Native American trade routes, as well as being cultivated on colonial farms. An 1845 United States apples nursery catalogue sold 350 of the "best" cultivars, showing the proliferation of new North American cultivars by the early 19th century. In the 20th century, irrigation projects in Eastern Washington began and allowed the development of the multibillion-dollar fruit industry, of which the apple is the leading product; until the 20th century, farmers stored apples in frostproof cellars during the winter for their own use or for sale.
Improved transportation of fresh apples by train and road replaced the necessity for storage. Controlled atmosphere facilities are used to keep apples fresh year-round. Controlled atmosphere facilit
Spice
A spice is a seed, root, bark, or other plant substance used for flavoring, coloring or preserving food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of plants used for flavoring or as a garnish. Many spices have antimicrobial properties; this may explain why spices are more used in warmer climates, which have more infectious diseases, why the use of spices is prominent in meat, susceptible to spoiling. Spices are sometimes used in religious rituals, cosmetics or perfume production; the spice trade developed throughout the Indian subcontinent and Middle East by at earliest 2000 BCE with cinnamon and black pepper, in East Asia with herbs and pepper. The Egyptians used herbs for mummification and their demand for exotic spices and herbs helped stimulate world trade; the word spice comes from the Old French word espice, which became epice, which came from the Latin root spec, the noun referring to "appearance, kind": species has the same root. By 1000 BCE, medical systems based upon herbs could be found in China and India.
Early uses were connected with magic, religion and preservation. Cloves were used in Mesopotamia by 1700 BCE; the ancient Indian epic Ramayana mentions cloves. The Romans had cloves in the 1st century CE; the earliest written records of spices come from ancient Egyptian and Indian cultures. The Ebers Papyrus from Early Egyptians that dates from 1550 B. C. E. Describes some eight hundred different medicinal remedies and numerous medicinal procedures. Historians believe that nutmeg, which originates from the Banda Islands in Southeast Asia, was introduced to Europe in the 6th century BCE. Indonesian merchants traveled around China, the Middle East, the east coast of Africa. Arab merchants facilitated the routes through India; this resulted in the Egyptian port city of Alexandria being the main trading center for spices. The most important discovery prior to the European spice trade were the monsoon winds. Sailing from Eastern spice cultivators to Western European consumers replaced the land-locked spice routes once facilitated by the Middle East Arab caravans.
In the story of Genesis, Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers to spice merchants. In the biblical poem Song of Solomon, the male speaker compares his beloved to many forms of spices. Spices were among the most demanded and expensive products available in Europe in the Middle Ages, the most common being black pepper, cumin, nutmeg and cloves. Given medieval medicine's main theory of humorism and herbs were indispensable to balance "humors" in food, a daily basis for good health at a time of recurrent pandemics. In addition to being desired by those using medieval medicine, the European elite craved spices in the Middle Ages. An example of the European aristocracy's demand for spice comes from the King of Aragon, who invested substantial resources into bringing back spices to Spain in the 12th century, he was looking for spices to put in wine, was not alone among European monarchs at the time to have such a desire for spice. Spices were all imported from plantations in Africa, which made them expensive.
From the 8th until the 15th century, the Republic of Venice had the monopoly on spice trade with the Middle East, along with it the neighboring Italian maritime republics and city-states. The trade made the region rich, it has been estimated that around 1,000 tons of pepper and 1,000 tons of the other common spices were imported into Western Europe each year during the Late Middle Ages. The value of these goods was the equivalent of a yearly supply of grain for 1.5 million people. The most exclusive was saffron, used as much for its vivid yellow-red color as for its flavor. Spices that have now fallen into obscurity in European cuisine include grains of paradise, a relative of cardamom which replaced pepper in late medieval north French cooking, long pepper, spikenard and cubeb. Spain and Portugal were interested in seeking new routes to trade in spices and other valuable products from Asia; the control of trade routes and the spice-producing regions were the main reasons that Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama sailed to India in 1499.
When Gama discovered the pepper market in India, he was able to secure peppers for a much cheaper price than the ones demanded by Venice. At around the same time, Christopher Columbus returned from the New World, he described to investors new spices available there. Another source of competition in the spice trade during the 15th and 16th century was the Ragusans from the maritime republic of Dubrovnik in southern Croatia; the military prowess of Afonso de Albuquerque allowed the Portuguese to take control of the sea routes to India. In 1506, he took the island of Socotra in the mouth of the Red Sea and, in 1507, Ormuz in the Persian Gulf. Since becoming the viceroy of the Indies, he took Goa in India in 1510, Malacca on the Malay peninsula in 1511; the Portuguese could now trade directly with Siam and the Maluku Islands. With the discovery of the New World came new spices, including allspice, chili peppers and chocolate; this development kept the spice trade, with America as a late comer with its new seasonings, profitable well into the 19th century.
One issue with spices today is dilution, where spices are blended to make inferior quality powdered spices, by including roots and other admixture in production of spice powder. A spice may be available in several forms: pre-ground dried. Spices are dried. Spices may be ground into a powder for c
Perfume
Perfume is a mixture of fragrant essential oils or aroma compounds and solvents, used to give the human body, food and living-spaces an agreeable scent. It is in liquid form and used to give a pleasant scent to a person's body. Ancient texts and archaeological excavations show the use of perfumes in some of the earliest human civilizations. Modern perfumery began in the late 19th century with the commercial synthesis of aroma compounds such as vanillin or coumarin, which allowed for the composition of perfumes with smells unattainable from natural aromatics alone; the word perfume derives from the Latin perfumare, meaning "to smoke through". Perfumery, as the art of making perfumes, began in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, or maybe Ancient China, was further refined by the Romans and the Arabs; the world's first-recorded chemist is considered a woman named Tapputi, a perfume maker mentioned in a cuneiform tablet from the 2nd millennium BC in Mesopotamia. She distilled flowers and calamus with other aromatics filtered and put them back in the still several times.
In India and perfumery existed in the Indus civilization. One of the earliest distillations of Ittar was mentioned in the Hindu Ayurvedic text Charaka Samhita and Sushruta Samhita. In 2003, archaeologists uncovered what are believed to be the world's oldest surviving perfumes in Pyrgos, Cyprus; the perfumes date back more than 4,000 years. They were discovered in an ancient perfumery, a 300-square-meter factory housing at least 60 stills, mixing bowls and perfume bottles. In ancient times people used herbs and spices, such as almond, myrtle, conifer resin, bergamot, as well as flowers. In May 2018, an ancient perfume “Rodo” was recreated for the Greek National Archaeological Museum's anniversary show “Countless Aspects of Beauty”, allowing visitors to approach antiquity through their olfaction receptors. In the 9th century the Arab chemist Al-Kindi wrote the Book of the Chemistry of Perfume and Distillations, which contained more than a hundred recipes for fragrant oils, aromatic waters, substitutes or imitations of costly drugs.
The book described 107 methods and recipes for perfume-making and perfume-making equipment, such as the alembic. The Persian chemist Ibn Sina introduced the process of extracting oils from flowers by means of distillation, the procedure most used today, he first experimented with the rose. Until his discovery, liquid perfumes consisted of mixtures of oil and crushed herbs or petals, which made a strong blend. Rose water was more delicate, became popular. Both the raw ingredients and the distillation technology influenced western perfumery and scientific developments chemistry; the art of perfumery was known in western Europe from 1221, taking into account the monks' recipes of Santa Maria delle Vigne or Santa Maria Novella of Florence, Italy. In the east, the Hungarians produced in 1370 a perfume made of scented oils blended in an alcohol solution – best known as Hungary Water – at the behest of Queen Elizabeth of Hungary; the art of perfumery prospered in Renaissance Italy, in the 16th century the personal perfumer to Catherine de' Medici, Rene the Florentine, took Italian refinements to France.
His laboratory was connected with her apartments by a secret passageway, so that no formulae could be stolen en route. Thanks to Rene, France became one of the European centers of perfume and cosmetics manufacture. Cultivation of flowers for their perfume essence, which had begun in the 14th century, grew into a major industry in the south of France. Between the 16th and 17th centuries, perfumes were used by the wealthy to mask body odors resulting from infrequent bathing. Due to this patronage, the perfume industry developed. In 1693, Italian barber Giovanni Paolo Feminis created a perfume water called Aqua Admirabilis, today best known as eau de cologne. By the 18th century the Grasse region of France and Calabria were growing aromatic plants to provide the growing perfume industry with raw materials. Today and France remain the center of European perfume design and trade. Perfume types reflect the concentration of aromatic compounds in a solvent, which in fine fragrance is ethanol or a mix of water and ethanol.
Various sources differ in the definitions of perfume types. The intensity and longevity of a perfume is based on the concentration and longevity of the aromatic compounds, or perfume oils, used; as the percentage of aromatic compounds increases, so does the intensity and longevity of the scent. Specific terms are used to describe a fragrance's approximate concentration by the percent of perfume oil in the volume of the final product; the most widespread terms are: parfum or extrait, in English known as perfume extract, pure perfume, or perfume: 15–40% aromatic compounds.
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