1.
Taxonomy (biology)
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Taxonomy is the science of defining groups of biological organisms on the basis of shared characteristics and giving names to those groups. The exact definition of taxonomy varies from source to source, but the core of the remains, the conception, naming. There is some disagreement as to whether biological nomenclature is considered a part of taxonomy, the broadest meaning of taxonomy is used here. The word taxonomy was introduced in 1813 by Candolle, in his Théorie élémentaire de la botanique, the term alpha taxonomy is primarily used today to refer to the discipline of finding, describing, and naming taxa, particularly species. In earlier literature, the term had a different meaning, referring to morphological taxonomy, ideals can, it may be said, never be completely realized. They have, however, a value of acting as permanent stimulants. Some of us please ourselves by thinking we are now groping in a beta taxonomy, turrill thus explicitly excludes from alpha taxonomy various areas of study that he includes within taxonomy as a whole, such as ecology, physiology, genetics, and cytology. He further excludes phylogenetic reconstruction from alpha taxonomy, thus, Ernst Mayr in 1968 defined beta taxonomy as the classification of ranks higher than species. This activity is what the term denotes, it is also referred to as beta taxonomy. How species should be defined in a group of organisms gives rise to practical and theoretical problems that are referred to as the species problem. The scientific work of deciding how to define species has been called microtaxonomy, by extension, macrotaxonomy is the study of groups at higher taxonomic ranks, from subgenus and above only, than species. While some descriptions of taxonomic history attempt to date taxonomy to ancient civilizations, earlier works were primarily descriptive, and focused on plants that were useful in agriculture or medicine. There are a number of stages in scientific thinking. Early taxonomy was based on criteria, the so-called artificial systems. Later came systems based on a complete consideration of the characteristics of taxa, referred to as natural systems, such as those of de Jussieu, de Candolle and Bentham. The publication of Charles Darwins Origin of Species led to new ways of thinking about classification based on evolutionary relationships and this was the concept of phyletic systems, from 1883 onwards. This approach was typified by those of Eichler and Engler, the advent of molecular genetics and statistical methodology allowed the creation of the modern era of phylogenetic systems based on cladistics, rather than morphology alone. Taxonomy has been called the worlds oldest profession, and naming and classifying our surroundings has likely been taking place as long as mankind has been able to communicate
2.
Plant
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Plants are mainly multicellular, predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. The term is generally limited to the green plants, which form an unranked clade Viridiplantae. This includes the plants, conifers and other gymnosperms, ferns, clubmosses, hornworts, liverworts, mosses and the green algae. Green plants have cell walls containing cellulose and obtain most of their energy from sunlight via photosynthesis by primary chloroplasts and their chloroplasts contain chlorophylls a and b, which gives them their green color. Some plants are parasitic and have lost the ability to produce amounts of chlorophyll or to photosynthesize. Plants are characterized by sexual reproduction and alternation of generations, although reproduction is also common. There are about 300–315 thousand species of plants, of which the great majority, green plants provide most of the worlds molecular oxygen and are the basis of most of Earths ecologies, especially on land. Plants that produce grains, fruits and vegetables form humankinds basic foodstuffs, Plants play many roles in culture. They are used as ornaments and, until recently and in variety, they have served as the source of most medicines. The scientific study of plants is known as botany, a branch of biology, Plants are one of the two groups into which all living things were traditionally divided, the other is animals. The division goes back at least as far as Aristotle, who distinguished between plants, which generally do not move, and animals, which often are mobile to catch their food. Much later, when Linnaeus created the basis of the system of scientific classification. Since then, it has become clear that the plant kingdom as originally defined included several unrelated groups, however, these organisms are still often considered plants, particularly in popular contexts. When the name Plantae or plant is applied to a group of organisms or taxon. The evolutionary history of plants is not yet settled. Those which have been called plants are in bold, the way in which the groups of green algae are combined and named varies considerably between authors. Algae comprise several different groups of organisms which produce energy through photosynthesis, most conspicuous among the algae are the seaweeds, multicellular algae that may roughly resemble land plants, but are classified among the brown, red and green algae. Each of these groups also includes various microscopic and single-celled organisms
3.
Flowering plant
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The flowering plants, also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants, with 416 families, approx. 13,164 known genera and a total of c.295,383 known species, etymologically, angiosperm means a plant that produces seeds within an enclosure, in other words, a fruiting plant. The term angiosperm comes from the Greek composite word meaning enclosed seeds, the ancestors of flowering plants diverged from gymnosperms in the Triassic Period, during the range 245 to 202 million years ago, and the first flowering plants are known from 160 mya. They diversified extensively during the Lower Cretaceous, became widespread by 120 mya, angiosperms differ from other seed plants in several ways, described in the table. These distinguishing characteristics taken together have made the angiosperms the most diverse and numerous land plants, the amount and complexity of tissue-formation in flowering plants exceeds that of gymnosperms. The vascular bundles of the stem are arranged such that the xylem and phloem form concentric rings, in the dicotyledons, the bundles in the very young stem are arranged in an open ring, separating a central pith from an outer cortex. In each bundle, separating the xylem and phloem, is a layer of meristem or active formative tissue known as cambium, the soft phloem becomes crushed, but the hard wood persists and forms the bulk of the stem and branches of the woody perennial. Among the monocotyledons, the bundles are more numerous in the stem and are scattered through the ground tissue. They contain no cambium and once formed the stem increases in diameter only in exceptional cases, the characteristic feature of angiosperms is the flower. Flowers show remarkable variation in form and elaboration, and provide the most trustworthy external characteristics for establishing relationships among angiosperm species, the function of the flower is to ensure fertilization of the ovule and development of fruit containing seeds. The floral apparatus may arise terminally on a shoot or from the axil of a leaf, occasionally, as in violets, a flower arises singly in the axil of an ordinary foliage-leaf. There are two kinds of cells produced by flowers. Microspores, which divide to become pollen grains, are the male cells and are borne in the stamens. The female cells called megaspores, which divide to become the egg cell, are contained in the ovule. The flower may consist only of parts, as in willow. Usually, other structures are present and serve to protect the sporophylls, the individual members of these surrounding structures are known as sepals and petals. The outer series is usually green and leaf-like, and functions to protect the rest of the flower, the inner series is, in general, white or brightly colored, and is more delicate in structure. It functions to attract insect or bird pollinators, attraction is effected by color, scent, and nectar, which may be secreted in some part of the flower
4.
Eudicots
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The eudicots, Eudicotidae or eudicotyledons are a monophyletic clade of flowering plants that had been called tricolpates or non-magnoliid dicots by previous authors. The close relationships among flowering plants with tricolpate pollen grains was initially seen in studies of shared derived characters. These plants have a trait in their pollen grains of exhibiting three colpi or grooves paralleling the polar axis. Later molecular evidence confirmed the basis for the evolutionary relationships among flowering plants with tricolpate pollen grains. The term means true dicotyledons, as it contains the majority of plants that have been considered dicots and have characteristics of the dicots, the term eudicots has subsequently been widely adopted in botany to refer to one of the two largest clades of angiosperms, monocots being the other. The remaining angiosperms are sometimes referred to as basal angiosperms or paleodicots, the other name for the eudicots is tricolpates, a name which refers to the grooved structure of the pollen. Members of the group have tricolpate pollen, or forms derived from it and these pollens have three or more pores set in furrows called colpi. In contrast, most of the seed plants produce monosulcate pollen. The name tricolpates is preferred by some botanists to avoid confusion with the dicots, numerous familiar plants are eudicots, including many common food plants, trees, and ornamentals. Most leafy trees of midlatitudes also belong to eudicots, with exceptions being magnolias and tulip trees which belong to magnoliids, and Ginkgo biloba. The name eudicots is used in the APG system, of 1998 and it is applied to a clade, a monophyletic group, which includes most of the dicots. The eudicots can be divided into two groups, the basal eudicots and the core eudicots, basal eudicot is an informal name for a paraphyletic group. The core eudicots are a monophyletic group, a 2010 study suggested the core eudicots can be divided into two clades, Gunnerales and a clade called Pentapetalae, comprising all the remaining core eudicots
5.
Rosids
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The rosids are members of a large clade of flowering plants, containing about 70,000 species, more than a quarter of all angiosperms. The clade is divided into 16 to 20 orders, depending upon circumscription and classification and these orders, in turn, together comprise about 140 families. Fossil rosids are known from the Cretaceous period, molecular clock estimates indicate that the rosids originated in the Aptian or Albian stages of the Cretaceous, between 125 and 99.6 million years ago. The name is based upon the name Rosidae, which had usually been understood to be a subclass, in 1967, Armen Takhtajan showed that the correct basis for the name Rosidae is a description of a group of plants published in 1830 by Friedrich Gottlieb Bartling. The clade was later renamed Rosidae and has been variously delimited by different authors, the name rosids is informal and not assumed to have any particular taxonomic rank like the names authorized by the ICBN. The rosids are monophyletic based upon evidence found by molecular phylogenetic analysis, three different definitions of the rosids were used. Some authors included the orders Saxifragales and Vitales in the rosids, others excluded both of these orders. The circumscription used in this article is that of the APG IV classification, which includes Vitales, the rosids and Saxifragales form the superrosids clade. This is one of three groups compose the Pentapetalae, the others being Dilleniales and the superasterids. The rosids consist of two groups, the order Vitales and the eurosids, the eurosids, in turn, are divided into two groups, fabids and malvids. The rosids consist of 17 orders, in addition to Vitales, there are 8 orders in fabids and 8 orders in malvids. Some of the orders have only recently been recognized and these are Vitales, Zygophyllales, Crossosomatales, Picramniales, and Huerteales. The phylogeny of Rosids shown below is adapted from the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group website, the nitrogen-fixing clade contains a high number of actinorhizal plants. Not all plants in this clade are actinorhizal, however, media related to Rosids at Wikimedia Commons
6.
Fabales
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The Fabales are an order of flowering plants included in the rosid group of the eudicots in the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group II classification system. In the APG II circumscription, this includes the families Fabaceae or legumes, Quillajaceae, Polygalaceae or milkworts. Under the Cronquist system and some other plant classification systems, the order Fabales contains only the family Fabaceae, in the classification system of Dahlgren the Fabales were in the superorder Fabiflorae with three families corresponding to the subfamilies of Fabaceae in APG II. The Fabaceae, as the third-largest plant family in the world, contain most of the diversity of the Fabales, research in the order is largely focused on the Fabaceae, due in part to its great biological diversity, and to its importance as food plants. The Fabales are a order of plants, except only the subfamily Papilionoideae of the Fabaceae are well dispersed throughout the northern part of the North Temperate Zone
7.
Fabaceae
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The Fabaceae, Leguminosae or Papilionaceae, commonly known as the legume, pea, or bean family, are a large and economically important family of flowering plants. It includes trees, shrubs, and perennial or annual herbaceous plants, the five largest of the genera are Astragalus, Acacia, Indigofera, Crotalaria and Mimosa, which constitute about a quarter of all legume species. The ca.19,000 known legume species amount to about 7% of flowering plant species, Fabaceae is the most common family found in tropical rainforests and in dry forests in the Americas and Africa. Recent molecular and morphological evidence supports the fact that the Fabaceae is a monophyletic family. These studies confirm that the Fabaceae are a group that is closely related to the Polygalaceae, Surianaceae and Quillajaceae families. Along with the cereals, some fruits and tropical roots a number of Leguminosae have been a human food for millennia. A number of species are also weedy pests in different parts of the world, including, Cytisus scoparius, Robinia pseudoacacia, Ulex europaeus, Pueraria lobata, the name Fabaceae comes from the defunct genus Faba, now included in Vicia. The term faba comes from Latin, and appears to simply mean bean, Leguminosae is an older name still considered valid, and refers to the fruit of these plants, which are called legumes. Fabaceae range in habit from giant trees to small annual herbs, plants have indeterminate inflorescences, which are sometimes reduced to a single flower. The flowers have a short hypanthium and a single carpel with a short gynophore, the Leguminosae have a wide variety of growth forms including trees, shrubs or herbaceous plants or even vines or lianas. The herbaceous plants can be annuals, biennials or perennials, without basal or terminal leaf aggregations and they are upright plants, epiphytes or vines. The latter support themselves by means of shoots that twist around a support or through cauline or foliar tendrils, plants can be heliophytes, mesophytes or xerophytes. The leaves are alternate and compound. Most often they are even- or odd-pinnately compound, often trifoliate and rarely palmately compound, in the Mimosoideae and they always have stipules, which can be leaf-like, thorn-like or be rather inconspicuous. Leaf margins are entire or, occasionally, serrate, both the leaves and the leaflets often have wrinkled pulvini to permit nastic movements. In some species, leaflets have evolved into tendrils, many species have leaves with structures that attract ants that protect the plant from herbivore insects. Extrafloral nectaries are common among the Mimosoideae and the Caesalpinioideae, and are found in some Faboideae. In some Acacia, the modified hollow stipules are inhabited by ants and are known as domatia, many Fabaceae host bacteria in their roots within structures called root nodules
8.
Faboideae
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The Faboideae are a subfamily of the flowering plant family Fabaceae or Leguminosae. An acceptable alternative name for the subfamily is Papilionoideae, or Papilionaceae when this group of plants is treated as a family and this subfamily is widely distributed, and members are adapted to a wide variety of environments. Faboideae may be trees, shrubs, or herbaceous plants, members include the pea, the sweet pea, the laburnum, and other legumes. The flowers are classically pea-shaped, and root nodulation is very common, the type genus, Faba, is a synonym of Vicia, and is listed here as Vicia. Faboideae in L. Watson and M. J. Dallwitz, the Families of Flowering Plants, Descriptions, Illustrations, Identification, Information Retrieval
9.
Vigna
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Vigna is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae, with a pantropical distribution. It includes some well-known cultivated species, including types of beans. Some are former members of the genus Phaseolus, according to Hortus Third, Vigna differs from Phaseolus in biochemistry and pollen structure, and in details of the style and stipules. Vigna are herbs or occasionally subshrubs, the leaves are pinnate, divided into 3 leaflets. The inflorescence is a raceme of yellow, blue, or purple pea flowers, the fruit is a legume pod of varying shape containing seeds. Familiar food species include the bean, the black gram, the cowpea, and the mung bean, which is used as a whole bean. The genus is named after es, Domenico Vigna, a seventeenth-century Italian botanist, the genus Vigna contains at least 90 species, including, Multilingual taxonomic information
10.
Binomial nomenclature
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Such a name is called a binomial name, a binomen, binominal name or a scientific name, more informally it is also called a Latin name. The first part of the name identifies the genus to which the species belongs, for example, humans belong to the genus Homo and within this genus to the species Homo sapiens. The formal introduction of system of naming species is credited to Carl Linnaeus. But Gaspard Bauhin, in as early as 1623, had introduced in his book Pinax theatri botanici many names of genera that were adopted by Linnaeus. Although the general principles underlying binomial nomenclature are common to these two codes, there are differences, both in the terminology they use and in their precise rules. Similarly, both parts are italicized when a binomial name occurs in normal text, thus the binomial name of the annual phlox is now written as Phlox drummondii. In scientific works, the authority for a name is usually given, at least when it is first mentioned. In zoology Patella vulgata Linnaeus,1758, the original name given by Linnaeus was Fringilla domestica, the parentheses indicate that the species is now considered to belong in a different genus. The ICZN does not require that the name of the person who changed the genus be given, nor the date on which the change was made, in botany Amaranthus retroflexus L. – L. is the standard abbreviation used in botany for Linnaeus. – Linnaeus first named this bluebell species Scilla italica, Rothmaler transferred it to the genus Hyacinthoides, the ICN does not require that the dates of either publication be specified. Prior to the adoption of the binomial system of naming species. Together they formed a system of polynomial nomenclature and these names had two separate functions. First, to designate or label the species, and second, to be a diagnosis or description, such polynomial names may sometimes look like binomials, but are significantly different. For example, Gerards herbal describes various kinds of spiderwort, The first is called Phalangium ramosum, Branched Spiderwort, is aptly termed Phalangium Ephemerum Virginianum, Soon-Fading Spiderwort of Virginia. The Latin phrases are short descriptions, rather than identifying labels, the Bauhins, in particular Caspar Bauhin, took some important steps towards the binomial system, by pruning the Latin descriptions, in many cases to two words. The adoption by biologists of a system of binomial nomenclature is due to Swedish botanist and physician Carl von Linné. It was in his 1753 Species Plantarum that he first began using a one-word trivial name together with a generic name in a system of binomial nomenclature. This trivial name is what is now known as an epithet or specific name
11.
Carl Linnaeus
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Carl Linnaeus, also known after his ennoblement as Carl von Linné, was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who formalised the modern system of naming organisms called binomial nomenclature. He is known by the father of modern taxonomy. Many of his writings were in Latin, and his name is rendered in Latin as Carolus Linnæus, Linnaeus was born in the countryside of Småland, in southern Sweden. He received most of his education at Uppsala University. He lived abroad between 1735 and 1738, where he studied and also published a first edition of his Systema Naturae in the Netherlands and he then returned to Sweden, where he became professor of medicine and botany at Uppsala. In the 1740s, he was sent on journeys through Sweden to find and classify plants. In the 1750s and 1760s, he continued to collect and classify animals, plants, and minerals, at the time of his death, he was one of the most acclaimed scientists in Europe. The philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau sent him the message, Tell him I know no man on earth. The German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote, With the exception of Shakespeare and Spinoza, Swedish author August Strindberg wrote, Linnaeus was in reality a poet who happened to become a naturalist. Among other compliments, Linnaeus has been called Princeps botanicorum, The Pliny of the North and he is also considered as one of the founders of modern ecology. In botany, the abbreviation used to indicate Linnaeus as the authority for species names is L. In older publications, sometimes the abbreviation Linn. is found, Linnæus was born in the village of Råshult in Småland, Sweden, on 23 May 1707. He was the first child of Nicolaus Ingemarsson and Christina Brodersonia and his siblings were Anna Maria Linnæa, Sofia Juliana Linnæa, Samuel Linnæus, and Emerentia Linnæa. One of a line of peasants and priests, Nils was an amateur botanist, a Lutheran minister. Christina was the daughter of the rector of Stenbrohult, Samuel Brodersonius, a year after Linnæus birth, his grandfather Samuel Brodersonius died, and his father Nils became the rector of Stenbrohult. The family moved into the rectory from the curates house, even in his early years, Linnæus seemed to have a liking for plants, flowers in particular. Whenever he was upset, he was given a flower, which calmed him. Nils spent much time in his garden and often showed flowers to Linnaeus, soon Linnæus was given his own patch of earth where he could grow plants
12.
Synonym (taxonomy)
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For example, Linnaeus was the first to give a scientific name to the Norway spruce, which he called Pinus abies. This name is no longer in use, it is now a synonym of the current scientific name which is Picea abies, unlike synonyms in other contexts, in taxonomy a synonym is not interchangeable with the name of which it is a synonym. In taxonomy, synonyms are not equals, but have a different status, for any taxon with a particular circumscription, position, and rank, only one scientific name is considered to be the correct one at any given time. A synonym cannot exist in isolation, it is always an alternative to a different scientific name, given that the correct name of a taxon depends on the taxonomic viewpoint used a name that is one taxonomists synonym may be another taxonomists correct name. Synonyms may arise whenever the same taxon is described and named more than once, independently. They may also arise when existing taxa are changed, as when two taxa are joined to one, a species is moved to a different genus. To the general user of scientific names, in such as agriculture, horticulture, ecology, general science. A synonym is a name that was used as the correct scientific name but which has been displaced by another scientific name. Thus Oxford Dictionaries Online defines the term as a name which has the same application as another. In handbooks and general texts, it is useful to have mentioned as such after the current scientific name. Synonyms used in this way may not always meet the strict definitions of the synonym in the formal rules of nomenclature which govern scientific names. Changes of scientific name have two causes, they may be taxonomic or nomenclatural, a name change may be caused by changes in the circumscription, position or rank of a taxon, representing a change in taxonomic, scientific insight. A name change may be due to purely nomenclatural reasons, that is, based on the rules of nomenclature, the earliest such name is called the senior synonym, while the later name is the junior synonym. One basic principle of zoological nomenclature is that the earliest correctly published name, synonyms are important because if the earliest name cannot be used, then the next available junior synonym must be used for the taxon. Objective synonyms refer to taxa with the type and same rank. For example, John Edward Gray published the name Antilocapra anteflexa in 1855 for a species of pronghorn, however, it is now commonly accepted that his specimen was an unusual individual of the species Antilocapra americana published by George Ord in 1815. Ords name thus takes precedence, with Antilocapra anteflexa being a subjective synonym. Objective synonyms are common at the level of genera, because for various reasons two genera may contain the type species, these are objective synonyms
13.
Bean
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Bean is a common name for large seeds of several genera of the flowering plant family Fabaceae which are used for human or animal food. The word bean and its Germanic cognates have existed in common use in West Germanic languages since before the 12th century, referring to broad beans and this was long before the New World genus Phaseolus was known in Europe. After Columbian-era contact between Europe and the Americas, use of the word was extended to pod-borne seeds of Phaseolus, such as the bean and the runner bean. Thus the term bean in general usage can mean a host of different species, seeds called beans are often included among the crops called pulses, although a narrower prescribed sense of pulses reserves the word for leguminous crops harvested for their dry grain. The term bean usually excludes legumes with tiny seeds and which are used exclusively for forage, hay, one is that in the past, several species, including Vigna angularis, mungo, radiata, and aconitifolia, were classified as Phaseolus and later reclassified. Unlike the closely related pea, beans are a crop that need warm temperatures to grow. Maturity is typically 55–60 days from planting to harvest, as the bean pods mature, they turn yellow and dry up, and the beans inside change from green to their mature colour. As a vine, bean plants need external support, which may be provided in the form of special bean cages or poles, native Americans customarily grew them along with corn and squash, with the tall cornstalks acting as support for the beans. In more recent times, the bush bean has been developed which does not require support and has all its pods develop simultaneously. This makes the bean more practical for commercial production. Beans are one of the longest-cultivated plants, broad beans, also called fava beans, in their wild state the size of a small fingernail, were gathered in Afghanistan and the Himalayan foothills. In a form improved from naturally occurring types, they were grown in Thailand since the seventh millennium BCE. They were deposited with the dead in ancient Egypt, not until the second millennium BCE did cultivated, large-seeded broad beans appear in the Aegean, Iberia and transalpine Europe. In the Iliad is a mention of beans and chickpeas cast on the threshing floor. Beans were an important source of protein throughout Old and New World history, the oldest-known domesticated beans in the Americas were found in Guitarrero Cave, an archaeological site in Peru, and dated to around the second millennium BCE. The corn would not be planted in rows as is done by European agriculture, Beans would be planted around the base of the developing stalks, and would vine their way up as the stalks grew. All American beans at that time were vine plants, bush beans having been bred only more recently, the cornstalks would work as a trellis for the beans, and the beans would provide much-needed nitrogen for the corn. Squash would be planted in the spaces between the patches of corn in the field, dry beans come from both Old World varieties of broad beans and New World varieties
14.
Indian subcontinent
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Geologically, the Indian subcontinent is related to the land mass that rifted from Gondwana and merged with the Eurasian plate nearly 55 million years ago. Geographically, it is the region in south-central Asia delineated by the Himalayas in the north, the Hindu Kush in the west. Politically, the Indian subcontinent usually includes Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, sometimes, the term South Asia is used interchangeably with Indian subcontinent. There is no consensus about which countries should be included in each and it is first attested in 1845 to refer to the North and South Americas, before they were regarded as separate continents. Its use to refer to the Indian subcontinent is seen from the twentieth century. It was especially convenient for referring to the region comprising both the British India and the states under British Paramountcy. The term Indian subcontinent also has a geological significance and it was, like the various continents, a part of the supercontinent of Gondwana. A series of tectonic splits caused formation of basins, each drifting in various directions. The geological region called the Greater India once included the Madagascar, Seychelles, Antartica, as a geological term, Indian subcontinent has meant that region formed from the collision of the Indian basin with Eurasia nearly 55 million years ago, towards the end of Paleocene. The Indian subcontinent has been a particularly common in the British Empire. The region, state Mittal and Thursby, has also labelled as India, Greater India. The BBC and some sources refer to the region as the Asian Subcontinent. Some academics refer to it as South Asian Subcontinent, the terms Indian subcontinent and South Asia are sometimes used interchangeably. There is no accepted definition on which countries are a part of South Asia or Indian subcontinent. In dictionary entries, the term subcontinent signifies a large, distinguishable subdivision of a continent, the region experienced high volcanic activity and plate subdivisions, creating Madagascar, Seychelles, Antartica, Austrolasia and the Indian subcontinent basin. The Indian subcontinent drifted northeastwards, colliding with the Eurasian plate nearly 55 million years ago and this geological region largely includes Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The zone where the Eurasian and Indian subcontinent plates meet remains one of the active areas. The English term mainly continues to refer to the Indian subcontinent, physiographically, it is a peninsular region in south-central Asia delineated by the Himalayas in the north, the Hindu Kush in the west, and the Arakanese in the east
15.
Mung bean
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The mung bean, alternatively known as the moong bean, green gram, or mung Sanskrit मुद्ग / mudga, is a plant species in the legume family. The mung bean is mainly cultivated in India, China, and it is used as an ingredient in both savory and sweet dishes. The English word mung is derived from the Hindi word मूंग moong derived from the Sanskrit word मुद्ग and they are one of many species recently moved from the genus Phaseolus to Vigna, and is still often seen incorrectly cited as Phaseolus aureus or Phaseolus radiatus. Mung beans are used in various cuisines across Asia. Whole cooked mung beans are prepared from dried beans by boiling until they are soft. Mung beans are light yellow in colour when their skins are removed, Mung bean paste can be made by dehulling, cooking, and pulverizing the beans to a dry paste. Dehulled mung beans can also be used in a fashion as whole beans for the purpose of making sweet soups. Mung beans in some cuisines of India are stripped of their outer coats to make mung dal. In Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, steamed whole beans are seasoned with spices, in south and north Indian states, mung beans are also eaten as pancakes. They are soaked in water for six to 12 hours, then they are ground into fine paste along with ginger and salt. Then pancakes are made on a hot griddle. These are usually eaten for breakfast and this provides high quality protein that is rare in most Indian regional cuisines. Pongal or kichdi is another recipe that is made with rice, in Kerala, it is commonly used to make the parippu preparation in the Travancore region. It is also used, with milk and jaggery, to make a type of payasam. Soaked Moong called Hesaru in Kannada is one of ingredient in Kosambari a salad, in Chinese cuisine, whole mung beans are used to make a tángshuǐ, or dessert, otherwise literally translated, sugar water, called lǜdòu tángshuǐ, which is served either warm or chilled. In Indonesia, they are made into a popular snack called es kacang hijau. The beans are cooked with sugar, coconut milk, and a little ginger, in Hong Kong, dehulled mung beans and mung bean paste are made into ice cream or frozen ice pops. Mung bean paste is used as a filling for Chinese mooncakes in East China
16.
Lentil
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The lentil is an edible pulse. It is an annual plant of the legume family, known for its lens-shaped seeds. It is about 40 cm tall, and the seeds grow in pods, in South Asian cuisine, split lentils are known as lentils. Usually eaten with rice or rotis, the lentil is a staple throughout regions of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh. As a food crop, the majority of production comes from Canada. Lentils have been part of the diet since aceramic Neolithic times. Archeological evidence shows they were eaten 9,500 to 13,000 years ago, Lentil colors range from yellow to red-orange to green, brown and black. Lentils also vary in size, and are sold in forms, with or without the skins. Raw lentils are 8% water, 63% carbohydrates including 11% dietary fiber, 25% protein, lentils are a rich source of numerous essential nutrients, including folate, thiamin, pantothenic acid, vitamin B6, phosphorus, iron and zinc, among others. When lentils are cooked by boiling, protein content declines to 9% of total composition, lentils have the second-highest ratio of protein per calorie of any legume, after soybeans. The low levels of readily digestible starch, and high levels of slowly digested starch, the remaining 65% of the starch is a resistant starch classified as RS1. A minimum of 10% in starch from lentils escapes digestion and absorption in the small intestine, lentils also have anti-nutrient factors, such as trypsin inhibitors and a relatively high phytate content. Trypsin is an involved in digestion, and phytates reduce the bioavailability of dietary minerals. The phytates can be reduced by prolonged soaking and fermentation or sprouting, lentils are relatively tolerant to drought, and are grown throughout the world. FAOSTAT reported that the production of lentils for calendar year 2013 was 4,975,621 metric tons, primarily coming from Canada. About a quarter of the production of lentils is from India. Canada is the largest export producer of lentils in the world, Statistics Canada estimates that Canadian lentil production for the 2009/10 year was a record 1.5 million metric tons. The most commonly grown type is the Laird lentil, the Palouse region of eastern Washington and the Idaho panhandle, with its commercial center at Pullman, Washington, constitute the most important lentil-producing region in the United States
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India
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India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and it is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, in the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a border with Thailand. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE, in the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires, the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate, the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal empire, in the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance, in 2015, the Indian economy was the worlds seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, a nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks sixth in military expenditure among nations. India is a constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu, the latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as The people of the Indus, the geographical term Bharat, which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bharatas in the second millennium B. C. E and it is also traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. Gaṇarājya is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for republic dating back to the ancient times, hindustan is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century B. C. E. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then and its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety
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Pulse (legume)
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A legume is a plant or its fruit or seed in the family Fabaceae. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for their grain seed called pulse, for forage and silage. Well-known legumes include alfalfa, clover, peas, beans, lentils, lupin bean, mesquite, carob, soybeans, peanuts, Fabaceae is the most common family found in tropical rainforests and in dry forests in the Americas and Africa. A legume fruit is a dry fruit that develops from a simple carpel. A common name for type of fruit is a pod, although the term pod is also applied to a number of other fruit types, such as that of vanilla. Legumes are notable in that most of them have symbiotic nitrogen-fixing bacteria in structures called root nodules, for that reason, they play a key role in crop rotation. The term pulse, as used by the United Nations Food and this excludes green beans and green peas, which are considered vegetable crops. Also excluded are seeds that are grown for oil extraction. However, in usage, these distinctions are not always clearly made. Some Fabaceae, such as Scotch broom and other Genisteae, are leguminous but are not called legumes by farmers. Farmed legumes can belong to many classes, including forage, grain, blooms, pharmaceutical/industrial, fallow/green manure. Most commercially farmed species fill two or more roles simultaneously, depending upon their degree of maturity when harvested, grain legumes are cultivated for their seeds. The seeds are used for human and animal consumption or for the production of oils for industrial uses, grain legumes include beans, lentils, lupins, peas, and peanuts. Like other plant-based foods, pulses contain no cholesterol and little fat or sodium, Legumes are also an excellent source of resistant starch which is broken down by bacteria in the large intestine to produce short-chain fatty acids used by intestinal cells for food energy. Preliminary studies in humans include the potential for regular consumption of legumes in a diet to affect metabolic syndrome. There is evidence that a portion of pulses in a diet may lower blood pressure and reduce LDL cholesterol levels. Some, like alfalfa, clover, vetch, stylo, or Arachis, are sown in pasture, other forage legumes such as Leucaena or Albizia are woody shrub or tree species that are either broken down by livestock or regularly cut by humans to provide livestock feed. Legume species grown for their flowers include lupins, which are farmed commercially for their blooms as well as being popular in gardens worldwide, industrially farmed legumes include Indigofera and Acacia species, which are cultivated for dye and natural gum production, respectively
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Pakistan
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Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a federal parliamentary republic in South Asia on the crossroads of Central Asia and Western Asia. It is the sixth-most populous country with a population exceeding 200 million people, in terms of area, it is the 33rd-largest country in the world with an area covering 881,913 square kilometres. It is separated from Tajikistan by Afghanistans narrow Wakhan Corridor in the north, Pakistan is unique among Muslim countries in that it is the only country to have been created in the name of Islam. As a result of the Pakistan Movement led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah and it is an ethnically and linguistically diverse country, with a similarly diverse geography and wildlife. Initially a dominion, Pakistan adopted a constitution in 1956, becoming an Islamic republic, an ethnic civil war in 1971 resulted in the secession of East Pakistan as the new country of Bangladesh. The new constitution stipulated that all laws were to conform to the injunctions of Islam as laid down in the Quran. Pakistan has an economy with a well-integrated agriculture sector. The Pakistani economy is the 24th-largest in the world in terms of purchasing power and it is ranked among the emerging and growth-leading economies of the world, and is backed by one of the worlds largest and fastest-growing middle classes. The post-independence history of Pakistan has been characterised by periods of military rule, the country continues to face challenging problems such as illiteracy, healthcare, and corruption, but has substantially reduced poverty and terrorism and expanded per capita income. It is also a member of CERN. Pakistan is a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol, the Paris Agreement, the name Pakistan literally means land of the pure in Urdu and Persian. It is a play on the word pāk meaning pure in Persian and Pashto, the letter i was incorporated to ease pronunciation and form the linguistically correct and meaningful name. Some of the earliest ancient human civilisations in South Asia originated from areas encompassing present-day Pakistan, the earliest known inhabitants in the region were Soanian during the Lower Paleolithic, of whom stone tools have been found in the Soan Valley of Punjab. The Vedic Civilization, characterised by Indo-Aryan culture, laid the foundations of Hinduism, Multan was an important Hindu pilgrimage centre. The Vedic civilisation flourished in the ancient Gandhāran city of Takṣaśilā, the Indo-Greek Kingdom founded by Demetrius of Bactria included Gandhara and Punjab and reached its greatest extent under Menander, prospering the Greco-Buddhist culture in the region. Taxila had one of the earliest universities and centres of education in the world. At its zenith, the Rai Dynasty of Sindh ruled this region, the Pala Dynasty was the last Buddhist empire, which, under Dharampala and Devapala, stretched across South Asia from what is now Bangladesh through Northern India to Pakistan. The Arab conqueror Muhammad bin Qasim conquered the Indus valley from Sindh to Multan in southern Punjab in 711 AD, the Pakistan governments official chronology identifies this as the time when the foundation of Pakistan was laid
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Punjabi cuisine
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Punjabi cuisine is associated with food from the Punjab region of India and Pakistan. This cuisine has a tradition of many distinct and local ways of cooking. One is a form of tandoori cooking that is now famous in other parts of India, UK, Canada. The local cuisine of Punjab is heavily influenced by the agriculture, locally grown staple foods form the major part of the local cuisine. Distinctively Punjabi cuisine is known for its rich, buttery flavours along with the extensive vegetarian, main dishes include Sarson da saag and makki di roti. Basmati rice is the variety of Punjab and many varieties of rice dishes have been developed with this variety. The cooked rice is known as Chol in the Punjabi language, Many vegetable and meat based dishes are developed for this type of rice. There are many styles of cooking in Punjab, in the villages many people still employ the traditional infrastructure for cooking purposes. This includes wood-fired and masonry ovens, in the past many people employed wood-burning stoves. But this method is dying out, one derivation from this type of cooking is the tandoori style of cooking commonly known as tandoor. In India, tandoori cooking is traditionally associated with Punjab as Punjabis embraced the tandoor on a regional level and this style of cooking became popular in the mainstream after the 1947 partition when Punjabis resettled in places such as Delhi. In rural Punjab, it is common to have communal tandoors, Punjab is a major producer of wheat, rice and dairy products. These products also form the diet of the Punjabi people. The state of Punjab has one of the highest capita usage of products in India. Therefore, dairy products form an important component of Punjabi diet, clarified butter, sunflower oil, paneer and butter are used in Punjabi cooking. Clarified butter is most often used as the variant ghee, some north Punjab villages have also developed a local cheese variant known as dhaag, but the tradition of making dhaag is dying out. Food additives and condiments are added to enhance the flavor of the food. The most common additives is vinegar, Food coloring as additive is used in sweet dishes and desserts
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Coastal Andhra
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Coastal Andhra, is a region in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. This region was part of Madras State before 1953 and Andhra State from 1953 to 1956. According to the 2011 census, it has an area of 95,442 square kilometres which is 57. 99% of the state area. This area includes the districts of Andhra Pradesh between the Eastern Ghats and the Bay of Bengal, from the northern border with Odisha to south of the delta of the Krishna River. Coastal Andhra has rich agricultural land, owing to the delta of the Godavari, the prosperity of Coastal Andhra can be attributed to its rich agricultural land and an abundant water supply from these two rivers. Rice grown in paddy fields is the crop, with pulses. The fishing industry is important to the region. The state of Andhra emerged to a political power during the reign of Maurya Dynasty, megasthenes mentioned that Andhra was a flourishing empire of the Satavahanas from the times before christ. Coastal Andhra was also ruled by the famous Chalukyas in between the period of the 7th Century and the 10th century CE and this period was followed by the reign of many other dynasties such as the Cholas, the Kakatiyas as well as the Vijayanagar Empire. According to 11th century inscriptions, coastal Andhra is bounded by Mahendragiri mountains, Kalahasti temple, the Gajapati and Ganjam districts of Odisha were granted to the French East India Company around 1752. Later they were transferred by the French to the British, Nellore, which extends as far as Ongole Taluk, was later received from the Nawab of Arcot, under an establishment. Some parts of present-day Nellore and Chitoor were in the hands of Venkatagiri Rajas, the British made an arrangement with the Raja of Venkatagiri in 1802 to claim power in those territories also. The districts of Andhra and Rayalaseema were ceded by the Nizams to the Britishers, Coastal Andhra is located in the eastern region of the state of Andhra Pradesh and comprises nine districts. It borders Rayalaseema region of the state and the states of Telangana, the presence of the Krishna and Godavari River makes the area fertile for irrigation. The coastal line of this region is the second longest in the country, the area had a total population of 34,195,655 as per 2011 Census of India. The main most spoken language is Telugu, Kuchipudi is the classical dance form of the state, which was originated in the Kuchipudi village of Krishna district. Rice is the food in the Kosta cuisine and is usually consumed with a variety of curries. Cuisine of Coastal Andhra is influenced by sea food varieties, Coastal Andhra contains nine districts, Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, East Godavari, West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur, Prakasam and Nellore
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Andhra Pradesh
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Andhra Pradesh is one of the 29 states of India, situated on the southeastern coast of the country. The state is the eighth largest state in India covering an area of 162,968 km2, as per 2011 Census of India, the state is tenth largest by population with 49,386,799 inhabitants. On 2 June 2014, the portion of the state was bifurcated to form a new state of Telangana. In accordance with the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act,2014, Hyderabad will remain the de jure capital of both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states for a period of not exceeding 10 years. The new riverfront proposed capital in Guntur district is Amaravati, which is under the jurisdiction of APCRDA, the Gross State Domestic Product of the state in the 2016–2017 financial year at current prices stood at ₹6,800.3 billion. The state has a coastline of 974 km with jurisdiction over nearly 15,000 km2 territorial waters, the second longest among all the states of India after Gujarat. It is bordered by Telangana in the north-west, Chhattisgarh in the north, Odisha in the north-east, Karnataka in the west, Tamil Nadu in the south and the water body of Bay of Bengal in the east. A small enclave of 30 km2 of Yanam, a district of Puducherry, Andhra Pradesh is composed of two regions, Coastal Andhra, located along the Bay of Bengal, and Rayalaseema, in the inland southwestern part of the state. These two regions comprise 13 districts, with 9 in Coastal Andhra and 4 in Rayalaseema, Andhra Pradesh hosted 121.8 million visitors in 2015, a 30% growth in tourist arrivals over the previous year. The Tirumala Venkateswara Temple in Tirupati is one of the worlds most visited religious sites, a tribe named Andhra has been mentioned in the Sanskrit texts such as Aitareya Brahmana. According to Aitareya Brahmana of the Rig Veda, the Andhras left north India, archaeological evidence from places such as Amaravati, Dharanikota and Vaddamanu suggests that the Andhra region was part of the Mauryan Empire. Amaravati might have been a centre for the Mauryan rule. After the death of emperor Ashoka, the Mauryan rule weakened around 200 BCE, the Satavahana dynasty dominated the Deccan region from the 1st century BCE to the 3rd century CE. The Satavahanas have been mentioned by the names Andhra, Andhrara-jatiya and Andhra-bhrtya in the Puranic literature, Dharanikota along with Amaravathi was the capital of the later Satavahanas. Amaravathi became a trade and pilgrimage centre during the Satavahana rule. According to the Buddhist tradition, Nagarjuna lived here, possibly in second, Andhra Ikshvakus were one of the earliest recorded ruling dynasties of the Guntur-Krishna regions of Andhra Pradesh. They ruled the eastern Andhra country along the Krishna river during the half of the second century CE. Puranas called Andhra Ikshvakus Shri Parvatiya Andhras, archaeological evidence has suggested that the Andhra Ikshvakus immediately succeeded the Satavahanas in the Krishna river valley
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Guntur district
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Guntur district is an administrative district in the Coastal Andhra region of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The administrative seat of the district is located at Guntur, the largest city of the district in terms of area and population. It has a coastline of approximately 100 km and is situated on the bank of Krishna River. It is bounded on the south by Prakasam district and on the west by the state of Telangana. It has an area of 11,391 km2 and is the 2nd most populous district in the state a population of 4,889,230 as per 2011 census of India, the district is a major centre for agriculture, education and learning. It exports large quantities of chillies and tobacco, Amaravati, the proposed capital of Andhra Pradesh is situated in Guntur district, on the banks of River Krishna. There are several opinions on the meaning and origin of the word Guntur, in Sanskrit, Guntur was called Garthapuri. The original Sanskrit name for Guntur was Garthapuri, the Agasthyeswara Sivalayam in the old city of Guntur is an ancient temple for Siva. It has inscriptions on two stones in Naga Lipi and it is said that Agastya built the temple in the last Treta-Yuga around the Swayambhu Linga and hence the name. The Nagas were said to have ruled the region, the place of Sitanagaram and the Guthikonda Caves can be traced back to the last Treta-Yuga and Dwapara-Yuga. Guntur District is home to the second oldest evidence of habitation in India. Ancient history can be traced from the time of Sala kings who ruled during the 5th century BCE, the earliest reference to Guntur, a variant of Guntur, comes from the Idern plates of Ammaraja I, the Vengi Chalukyan King. Guntur also appears in two inscriptions dated 1147 and 1158 CE, since the beginning of Buddhist time, Guntur stood in the forefront in matters of culture, education and civilisation. Gautama Buddha preached at Dharanikota/Dhanyakatakam near Guntur and conducted Kalachakra ceremony, buddhists established universities in ancient times at Dhanyakataka and Amaravathi. Scores of Buddhist stupas were excavated in the villages of Guntur district, Acharya Nagarjuna, an influential Buddhist philosopher taught at Nagarjunakonda and is said to have discovered Mica in 200 BCE. Chinese traveller and Buddhist monk Hiuen Tsang visited Amaravati in 640 C. E. stayed for sometime and he observed that there were many Viharas and some of them were deserted, which points out that Hinduism was gaining ground at that time. Xuanzang wrote an account of the place, Viharas and monasteries that existed. The famous battle of Palnadu which is enshrined in legend and literature as Palnati Yuddham was fought in Guntur district in 1180 CE
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Caribbean
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The Caribbean is a region that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands and the surrounding coasts. The region is southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and the North American mainland, east of Central America, situated largely on the Caribbean Plate, the region comprises more than 700 islands, islets, reefs and cays. These islands generally form island arcs that delineate the eastern and northern edges of the Caribbean Sea, in a wider sense, the mainland countries of Belize, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana are often included due to their political and cultural ties with the region. Geopolitically, the Caribbean islands are usually regarded as a subregion of North America and are organized into 30 territories including sovereign states, overseas departments, and dependencies. From December 15,1954, to October 10,2010, there was a known as the Netherlands Antilles composed of five states. The West Indies cricket team continues to represent many of those nations, the region takes its name from that of the Caribs, an ethnic group present in the Lesser Antilles and parts of adjacent South America at the time of the Spanish conquest. The two most prevalent pronunciations of Caribbean are KARR-ə-BEE-ən, with the accent on the third syllable. The former pronunciation is the older of the two, although the variant has been established for over 75 years. It has been suggested that speakers of British English prefer KARR-ə-BEE-ən while North American speakers more typically use kə-RIB-ee-ən, usage is split within Caribbean English itself. The word Caribbean has multiple uses and its principal ones are geographical and political. The Caribbean can also be expanded to include territories with strong cultural and historical connections to slavery, European colonisation, the United Nations geoscheme for the Americas accords the Caribbean as a distinct region within the Americas. Physiographically, the Caribbean region is mainly a chain of islands surrounding the Caribbean Sea, to the north, the region is bordered by the Gulf of Mexico, the Straits of Florida and the Northern Atlantic Ocean, which lies to the east and northeast. To the south lies the coastline of the continent of South America, politically, the Caribbean may be centred on socio-economic groupings found in the region. For example, the known as the Caribbean Community contains the Co-operative Republic of Guyana. Bermuda and the Turks and Caicos Islands, which are in the Atlantic Ocean, are members of the Caribbean Community. The Commonwealth of the Bahamas is also in the Atlantic and is a member of the Caribbean Community. According to the ACS, the population of its member states is 227 million people. The geography and climate in the Caribbean region varies, Some islands in the region have relatively flat terrain of non-volcanic origin and these islands include Aruba, Barbados, Bonaire, the Cayman Islands, Saint Croix, the Bahamas, and Antigua
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Fiji
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Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about 1,100 nautical miles northeast of New Zealands North Island. Fiji is an archipelago of more than 330 islands, of which 110 are permanently inhabited, the two major islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, account for 87% of the population of almost 860,000. The capital, Suva on Viti Levu, serves as Fijis principal cruise port, about three-quarters of Fijians live on Viti Levus coasts, either in Suva or in smaller urban centres like Nadi or Lautoka. Viti Levus interior is sparsely inhabited due to its terrain, Fiji has one of the most developed economies in the Pacific due to an abundance of forest, mineral, and fish resources. Today, the sources of foreign exchange are its tourist industry. The countrys currency is the Fijian dollar, Fijis local government, in the form of city and town councils, is supervised by the Ministry of Local Government and Urban Development. The majority of Fijis islands were formed through volcanic activity starting around 150 million years ago, today, some geothermal activity still occurs on the islands of Vanua Levu and Taveuni. Fiji has been inhabited since the second millennium BC, and was settled first by Austronesians and later by Melanesians, Europeans visited Fiji from the 17th century, and, after a brief period as an independent kingdom, the British established the Colony of Fiji in 1874. Fiji was a Crown colony until 1970, when it gained independence as a Commonwealth realm, a republic was declared in 1987, following a series of coups détat. In a coup in 2006, Commodore Frank Bainimarama seized power, later in 2009, Iloilo was replaced as President by Ratu Epeli Nailatikau. After years of delays, an election was held on 17 September 2014. Bainimaramas FijiFirst party won with 59. 2% of the vote, Fijis main island is known as Viti Levu and it is from this that the name Fiji is derived, though the common English pronunciation is based on that of their island neighbours in Tonga. Its emergence can be described as follows, Fijians first impressed themselves on European consciousness through the writings of the members of the expeditions of Cook who met them in Tonga. They were described as warriors and ferocious cannibals, builders of the finest vessels in the Pacific. They inspired awe amongst the Tongans, and all their Manufactures, especially bark cloth and clubs, were highly valued and much in demand. They called their home Viti, but the Tongans called it Fisi, and it was by this foreign pronunciation, Fiji, first promulgated by Captain James Cook, that these islands are now known. Feejee, the Anglicised spelling of the Tongan pronunciation, was used in accounts and other writings until the late 19th century, by missionaries and other travellers visiting Fiji. Pottery art from Fijian towns shows that Fiji was settled before or around 3500 to 1000 BC, the first settlements in Fiji were started by voyaging traders and settlers from the west about 5000 years ago
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Mauritius
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Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about 2,000 kilometres off the southeast coast of the African continent. The country includes the islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues, and the outer islands, the islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues form part of the Mascarene Islands, along with nearby Réunion, a French overseas department. The area of the country is 2,040 km², the capital and largest city is Port Louis. Mauritius was a British colonial possession from 1810 to 1968, the year of its independence, the government uses English as the main language. The sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago is disputed between Mauritius and the United Kingdom, the UK excised the archipelago from Mauritian territory in 1965, three years prior to Mauritian independence. The UK gradually depopulated the archipelagos indigenous population and leased its biggest island, Diego Garcia, access to the archipelago is prohibited to casual tourists, the media, and its former inhabitants. Mauritius also claims sovereignty over Tromelin Island from France, the people of Mauritius are multiethnic, multi-religious, multicultural and multilingual. The islands government is modelled on the Westminster parliamentary system. Along with the other Mascarene Islands, Mauritius is known for its flora and fauna. The island is known as the only known home of the dodo. Mauritius is the country in Africa where Hinduism is the largest religion. The first historical evidence of the existence of an island now known as Mauritius is on a map produced by the Italian cartographer Alberto Cantino in 1502. From this, it appears that Mauritius was first named Dina Arobi around 975 by Arab sailors, in 1507 Portuguese sailors visited the uninhabited island. The island appears with a Portuguese name Cirne on early Portuguese maps, another Portuguese sailor, Dom Pedro Mascarenhas, gave the name Mascarenes to the Archipelago. In 1598 a Dutch squadron under Admiral Wybrand van Warwyck landed at Grand Port and named the island Mauritius, in honour of Prince Maurice van Nassau, later the island became a French colony and was renamed Isle de France. On 3 December 1810 the French surrendered the island to Great Britain during the Napoleonic Wars, under British rule, the islands name reverted to Mauritius /məˈrɪʃəs/. Mauritius is also known as Maurice and Île Maurice in French. The island of Mauritius was uninhabited before its first recorded visit during the Middle Ages by Arab sailors, in 1507 Portuguese sailors came to the uninhabited island and established a visiting base
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Africa
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Africa is the worlds second-largest and second-most-populous continent. At about 30.3 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earths total surface area and 20.4 % of its land area. With 1.2 billion people as of 2016, it accounts for about 16% of the human population. The continent includes Madagascar and various archipelagos and it contains 54 fully recognized sovereign states, nine territories and two de facto independent states with limited or no recognition. Africas population is the youngest amongst all the continents, the age in 2012 was 19.7. Algeria is Africas largest country by area, and Nigeria by population, afarensis, Homo erectus, H. habilis and H. ergaster – with the earliest Homo sapiens found in Ethiopia being dated to circa 200,000 years ago. Africa straddles the equator and encompasses numerous climate areas, it is the continent to stretch from the northern temperate to southern temperate zones. Africa hosts a diversity of ethnicities, cultures and languages. In the late 19th century European countries colonized most of Africa, Africa also varies greatly with regard to environments, economics, historical ties and government systems. However, most present states in Africa originate from a process of decolonization in the 20th century, afri was a Latin name used to refer to the inhabitants of Africa, which in its widest sense referred to all lands south of the Mediterranean. This name seems to have referred to a native Libyan tribe. The name is connected with Hebrew or Phoenician ʿafar dust. The same word may be found in the name of the Banu Ifran from Algeria and Tripolitania, under Roman rule, Carthage became the capital of the province of Africa Proconsularis, which also included the coastal part of modern Libya. The Latin suffix -ica can sometimes be used to denote a land, the later Muslim kingdom of Ifriqiya, modern-day Tunisia, also preserved a form of the name. According to the Romans, Africa lay to the west of Egypt, while Asia was used to refer to Anatolia, as Europeans came to understand the real extent of the continent, the idea of Africa expanded with their knowledge. 25,4, whose descendants, he claimed, had invaded Libya, isidore of Seville in Etymologiae XIV.5.2. Suggests Africa comes from the Latin aprica, meaning sunny, massey, in 1881, stated that Africa is derived from the Egyptian af-rui-ka, meaning to turn toward the opening of the Ka. The Ka is the double of every person and the opening of the Ka refers to a womb or birthplace
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Phaseolus
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Phaseolus is a genus in the family Fabaceae containing about 70 plant species, all native to the Americas, primarily Mesoamerica. At least four of the species have been domesticated since pre-Columbian times for their beans, most prominent among these is the common bean, P. vulgaris, which today is cultivated worldwide in tropical, semitropical, and temperate climates. Previous classifications placed in this genus a number of other species that have now been removed to genus Vigna. For example, older literature refers to the bean as Phaseolus aureus. Similarly, the snail bean Vigna caracalla was discovered in 1753, the modern understanding of Phaseolus indicates a genus endemic to the New World alone. Phaseolus species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species, including common swift, garden dart, ghost moth Hypercompe albicornis, H. icasia and the nutmeg
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Idli
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Idli /ɪdliː/) is a traditional breakfast in South Indian households. Idli is a cake that is popular throughout India and neighbouring countries like Sri Lanka. The cakes are made by steaming a batter consisting of fermented black lentils, the fermentation process breaks down the starches so that they are more readily metabolized by the body. Idli has several variations, including rava idli, which is made from semolina, regional variants include sanna of Konkan and Enduri Pitha of Odisha. A precursor of the modern idli is mentioned in several ancient Indian works, vaddaradhane, a 920 CE Kannada language work by Shivakotiacharya mentions iddalige, prepared only from a black gram batter. The Western Chalukya king and scholar Someshwara III, reigning in the now called Karnataka, included an idli recipe in his encyclopedia. This Sanskrit-language work describes the food as iḍḍarikā, the food prepared using this recipe is now called uddina idli in Karnataka. The recipe mentioned in these ancient Indian works leaves out three key aspects of the modern recipe, the use of rice, the long fermentation of the mix. The references to the modern recipe appear in the Indian works only after 1250 CE, food historian K. T. Achaya speculates that the modern idli recipe might have originated in present-day Indonesia, which has a long tradition of fermented food. According to him, the cooks employed by the Hindu kings of the Indianised kingdoms might have invented the steamed idli there, Achaya mentioned an Indonesian dish called kedli, which according to him, was like an idli. However, Janaki Lenin was unable to find any recipe for an Indonesian dish by this name, the Gujarati work Varanaka Samuchaya mentions idli as idari, and also mentions its local adaption idada. The earliest extant Tamil work to mention idli is Maccapuranam, dated to the 17th century, to make Idli, four parts uncooked rice to one part whole white lentil are soaked separately for at least four hours to six hours or overnight. Optionally spices such as seeds can be added at the time of soaking for additional flavor. Once done soaking, the lentils are ground to a fine paste, next, the mixture is left to ferment overnight during which its volume will more than double. After fermentation some of the batter may be kept as a culture for the next batch. The finished idli batter is put into greased moulds of a tray or tree for steaming. The perforated molds allow the idlis to be cooked evenly, the tree holds the trays above the level of boiling water in a pot, and the pot is covered until the idlis are done. A more traditional method is to use instead of molds
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Medu vada
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Medu vada is an Indian fritter made from Vigna mungo. It is usually made in doughnut-shape, with a crispy exterior, a popular food item in the South Indian and Sri Lankan cuisines, it is generally eaten as a breakfast or a snack. Medu is the Kannada word for soft, medu vada thus literally means soft fritter, the dish is often mentioned simply as vada on menus. Other names for the dish include urad vada, medhu vadai, ulundu vadai, garelu, according to Vir Sanghvi, the origin of medu vada can be traced with some certainty to the Maddur town in present-day Karnataka. The dish was popular outside South India by Udupi restaurateurs of Mumbai. The medu vada is made primarily of black lentils batter, the black lentils are soaked in water for several hours, and then ground to a paste. The paste may be flavoured with ingredients such as asafoetida, methi seeds, ginger, cumin seeds, black pepper, curry leaves, chillies. It is then patted into doughnut-shapes and fried in oil until golden brown, one variation involves baking instead of frying. Other variations of the dish involve use of other than black lentils. For example, am-bada is made with chana dal, occasionally, tuar, the dish is usually served with sambar and coconut chutney. Along with idli, it is eaten as a breakfast. It is also eaten as a starter or a snack. The medu vada is sometimes served with yogurt, as a chaat snack. List of deep fried foods List of Indian dishes List of doughnut varieties List of fried dough varieties Medu Vada, South Indian Vada, Daal Vada
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Dal makhani
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Dal makhani or dal makhni is a popular dish from the Punjab region of Pakistan. The primary ingredients are whole black lentil, red beans, butter. The dish gets its richness from the use of cream, however, it can also be prepared with yogurt, dal makhani is a staple in the Indian subcontinent. It was popularized in India following partition, when people from the Punjab migrated to the northern regions of India. Dal makhani was first created by Sardar Singh, and is now recognized as a quintessential Indian dish, and variations of the dish are served in many different restaurants internationally. Dal makhani’s popularity is due in part to its versatility in a meal, the traditional preparation of dal makhani involves a series of time-consuming procedures, which can take up to 24 hours to complete. With the availability of cooking equipment, namely electric pressure cookers. List of legume dishes North Indian cuisine List of Pakistani soups and stews Kesar Da Dhaba Moti Mahal Delux The modern dal makhani was invented by Moti Mahal
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Dal
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Dal is a term in the Indian subcontinent for dried, split pulses. The term is used for various soups prepared from these pulses. These pulses are among the most important staple foods in SAARC countries, dals are frequently eaten with flatbreads such as rotis or chapatis or with rice, a combination referred to as dal bhat. Dals are high in relative to other plants. The outer hull is usually stripped off, dal that has not been hulled is described as chilka, e. g. chilka urad dal, the term dal is often contrasted with the term gram, used in South Asia for pulses that are whole rather than split. The word dāl derives the Sanskrit verbal root dal- to split, Dal preparations are eaten with rice, as well as rotis, chapati and naan on the Indian subcontinent. In India, it is eaten with rice and with a wheat flatbread called rotta, the manner in which it is cooked and presented varies by region. In South India, dal is used to make the dish called sambar. It is also used to make pappu that is mixed with charu and its protein contents are 3.5 times that of rice and 2.5 times that of wheat. It provides an excellent source of protein, particularly for those adopting vegetarian diets or diets which do not contain much meat and it is typically around 25% protein by dry weight, giving it a comparable protein content to meats. However, by weight, cooked dal contains 9% protein, 70% water, 20% carbohydrates, Note that as extra water is added to cooked lentil, as in the case of sambar, proportion of proteins and other nutrients will reduce further. Protein contents of cooked lentil are one third that of cooked chicken, most dals have a similar amount of protein. On its own, soybean is the only vegetarian complete protein, all other dals including pigeon pea do not have individual amino acids within protein in ideal proportion. However, if the proteins in dals are combined with rice or wheat, it provides amino acids in the right proportions, bioavailability of proteins from dals is less than those from eggs and meats. Note, Carbohydrates do not include fiber, source, https, //ndb. nal. usda. gov/ Note, Average daily protein requirements are 55 grams per person. Significant values are highlighted in light Gray color and bold letters, Note that absorption of this iron is reduced by about 65% if tea is consumed immediately after meal. This is important for vegetarians since tea reduces iron absorption from all plant sources including dal significantly, iron absorption can be increased by about up to 85% by having vitamin C rich foods such as Guava or Orange juice along with meal. Vitamin C contents of lentils can be increased up to 10.5 times by sprouting, significant values are highlighted in light Gray color and bold letters
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Mucilaginous
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Mucilage is a thick, gluey substance produced by nearly all plants and some microorganisms. It is a glycoprotein and an exopolysaccharide. Mucilage in plants plays a role in the storage of water and food, seed germination, cacti and flax seeds especially are rich sources of mucilage. Exopolysaccharides are the most stabilising factor for microaggregates and are distributed in soils. Therefore, exopolysaccharide-producing soil algae play a role in the ecology of the worlds soils. The substance covers the outside of, for example, unicellular or filamentous green algae, amongst the green algae especially, the group Volvocales are known to produce exopolysaccharides at a certain point in their life cycle. It occurs in almost all plants, but usually in small amounts and it is frequently associated with substances like tannins and alkaloids. Mucilage has a purpose in some carnivorous plants. The plant genera Drosera, Pinguicula, and others have leaves studded with mucilage-secreting glands and it is used in medicine as it relieves irritation of mucous membranes by forming a protective film. Traditionally, marshmallows were made from the extract of the root of the marshmallow plant as a cough medicine. The inner bark of the elm, a North American tree species, has long been used as a demulcent and is still produced commercially for that purpose. Mucilage mixed with water has been used as a glue, especially for bonding paper items such as labels, postage stamps, and envelope flaps. Differing types and varying strengths of mucilage can also be used for other applications, including gluing labels to metal cans, wood to china. During the fermentation of nattō soybeans, extracellular enzymes produced by the bacterium Bacillus natto react with sugars to produce mucilage. The amount and viscosity of the mucilage are important nattō characteristics, contributing to nattōs unique taste, the mucilage of two kinds of insectivorous plants, sundew and butterwort, is used for the traditional production of a variant of the yoghurt-like Swedish dairy product called filmjölk
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South India
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The region occupies 19. 31% of Indias land area. Covering the southern part of the peninsular Deccan Plateau, South India is bounded by the Bay of Bengal in the east, the Arabian Sea in the west, and the Indian Ocean in the south. The geography of the region is diverse, with two ranges, the Western and Eastern Ghats, bordering the plateau heartland. The Godavari River, Krishna River, Kaveri, Tungabhadra and Vaigai rivers are important non-perennial sources of water, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Coimbatore and Kochi are the largest urban areas. Majority of the people in South India speak one of the four major Dravidian languages, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam. During its history, a number of kingdoms ruled over parts of South India whose invasions across southern and southeastern Asia impacted the history. Major dynasties that were established in South India include the Cheras, Cholas, Pandyas, Pallavas, Satavahanas, Chalukyas, Rashtrakutas, european countries entered India through Kerala and the region was colonised by Britain and other nations. HDI in the states is high and the economy has undergone growth at a faster rate than most northern states. Literacy rates in the states are higher than the national average with approximately 80% of the population capable of reading and writing. The fertility rate in South India is 1.9, the lowest of all regions in India, South India also known as Peninsular India has been known by several other names. Carnatic derived from Karnād or Karunād meaning high country has also associated with South India. Carbon dating on ash mounds associated with Neolithic cultures in South India date back to 8000 BCE, artefacts such as ground stone axes, and minor copper objects have been found in the region. Towards the beginning of 1000 BCE, iron technology spread through the region, however, the region was in the middle of a trade route that extended from Muziris to Arikamedu linking the Mediterranean and East Asia. Trade with Phoenicians, Romans, Greeks, Arabs, Syrians, Jews, the region was part of the ancient Silk Road connecting the Asian continent in the East and the West. C. to 14th century A. D. The Vijayanagara Empire, founded in 14th century A. D. was the last Indian dynasty that ruled over the region. The Europeans arrived in the 15th century and by the middle of the 18th century, the French, the British Empire took control of the region from the British East India Company in 1857. During the British colonial rule, the region was divided into the Madras Presidency, Hyderabad state, Mysore, Travancore, Kochi, Vizianagaram and a number of other minor princely states. After the independence of India in 1947, the region was organised into four states, Madras State, Mysore State, Hyderabad State and Travancore-Cochin
35.
Dosa
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Dosa is a type of pancake made from a fermented batter. It is somewhat similar to a crepe but its ingredients are rice. Dosa is a part of the South Indian diet and popular all over the Indian subcontinent. Traditionally, Dosa is served hot along with sambar, stuffing of potatoes or paneer and it can be consumed with idli podi as well. Dosa is indigenous to South India, its birthplace in that region is a matter of conjecture. According to food historian K. T. Achaya, dosa was already in use in ancient Tamil country around the 1st century AD, according to P. Thankappan Nair, dosa originated in the Udupi town of present-day Karnataka. In popular tradition, the origin of dosa is linked to Udupi, also, the original Tamil dosa was softer and thicker. The thinner and crispier version of dosa, which became popular all over India, was first made in present-day Karnataka, a recipe for dosa can be found in Manasollasa, a 12th-century Sanskrit encyclopedia compiled by Someshvara III, who ruled from present-day Karnataka. Dosa is known by several names, the standard transliterations and pronunciations of the word in various South Indian languages are as follows, Dosa is high in carbohydrates and contains no added sugars or saturated fats. As its key ingredients are rice and black gram, it is also a source of protein. The fermentation process increases the vitamin B and vitamin C content, there are also instant mix products for making dosa which usually contain higher amounts of rice. A mixture of rice and black grams that has been soaked in water is ground finely to form a batter, some add a handful of fenugreek seeds soaked along with the rice. The proportion of rice to lentils is generally 4,1 or 5,1, the batter is allowed to ferment overnight. After the overnight fermentation, the batter is mixed with water to get the desired thickness, the batter is then ladled onto a hot tava greased with oil or ghee. It is spread out evenly with the base of a ladle or bowl to form a pancake, a dosa is served hot, either folded in half or rolled like a wrap. It is also served with chutney and sambar. The mixture of black grams and rice can be replaced with highly refined wheat flour or semolina, Dosa can be stuffed with fillings of vegetables and sauces to make a quick meal. They are typically served with a side dish which varies according to regional and personal preferences
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Vada (food)
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Vada is a common term for many different types of savoury fried snacks from India. Different types of vadas can be described variously as fritters, doughnuts, alternative names for this food include wada, vade, vadai, wadeh and bara. The various types of vadas are made from different ingredients, ranging from legumes to potatoes and they are often eaten as breakfast or snack, and also used in other food preparations. According to K. T. Achaya, Vada was popular among ancient Tamils during 100 BCE-300 CE, a type of vada is mentioned as vataka in Manasollasa, a 12th century Sanskrit encyclopedia compiled by Someshvara III, who ruled from present-day Karnataka. In this recipe, green beans are soaked, de-skinned, the paste is shaped into balls and deep-fried. Early literature from present-day Bihar and Uttar Pradesh also mentions bara and mungaura, vadas may be made from legumes, sago or potatoes. Commonly used legumes include pigeon pea, chickpea, vigna mungo, vegetables and other ingredients are added to improve taste and nutritive value. For legume-based vadas, the legumes are soaked with water, the batter is then seasoned with other ingredients, such as cumin seeds, onion, curry leaves, salt, chillies and/or black pepper grains. Often ginger and baking soda are added to the seasoning in shops to increase the fluffy texture, the mixture is then shaped and deep-fried, resulting in vadas with a crispy skin and fluffy centre. The preparation of kalmi vadas involves cutting the resulting product and re-frying it, vadas are often eaten as snacks or as an accompaniment to another dish. In restaurants, they can be ordered as an à la carte item and they are preferably eaten freshly fried, while still hot and crunchy. They are served with a variety of dips including sambar, watery or dry chutneys, Medu vadas are typically served along with a main course such as dosa, idli, or pongal. Sambar and coconut chutneys are the standard accompaniments for medu vadas, the various types of vadas include, Medu vada, made with urad dal flour. This vada is shaped like a doughnut with a hole in the middle and it is the most common vada type throughout South India and the most recognisable throughout India. It is also known as ulundhu vadai, uddina vade, minapa vada, masala vada, made with toor dal and shaped roughly like a flying saucer. It is also referred to as aamai vadai in Tamil due to its resemblance to a tortoise, other names include paruppu vadai, masala vade, masala vada and parippu vada. Maddur vade, a type of onion vada unique to the state of Karnataka and it is very popular in the Maddur town of Karnataka and has a very different taste from any other vada types. It is typically larger than other types and is flat
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Papadum
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Papadum is a thin, crisp, disc-shaped food from the Indian subcontinent, typically based on a seasoned dough usually made from peeled black gram flour, fried or cooked with dry heat. Flours made from other such as lentils, chickpeas, rice, tapioca. In certain parts of India, papadums which have been dried but not cooked are used in curries, pappad is called as Appalam in Tamil Nadu, pappadum in Kerala and pappad in most of the country. Pappad is mainly manufactured in Rajasthan, Maharastra in the north and in the south, Kerala and TamilNadu in Madurai district and Kanchipuram and it is called as happala in Karnataka. Papadum is a loanword from Tamil பப்படம் pappaṭam, which comes from the Sanskrit word पर्पट, papadum recipes vary from region to region and from family to family. They are typically made from flour or paste derived from either lentils, chickpeas, black gram, rice, salt and peanut oil are added to make a dough, which can be flavored with seasonings such as chili, cumin, garlic, or black pepper. Sometimes, baking soda or slaked lime is also added, the dough is shaped into a thin, round flatbread and then dried, and can be cooked by deep frying, roasting over an open flame, toasting, or microwaving, depending on the desired texture. There are different varieties of papad like Chana, Moong, Urad, Potato, Rice, bikaner is the hub of Moong and Urad papad manufacturing. Potato Papad are made in Varanasi, most sweets and snacks selling national companies are also involved into this business like Haldiram, Bikanerwala, Mishrambu, Lijjat, Shri Shyam Papad, etc. In most curry houses in the United Kingdom and Australia, they are served as an appetiser with dips which often include mango chutney, Papad can be prepared from different ingredients and methods. Arguably, the most popular recipe uses urad dal or black gram, black gram flour is mixed with black pepper and salt, and the mixture is kneaded together. A well-kneaded mixture is then flattened into thin rounds and kept for sun-drying, once dried, papad can be stored for later consumption. Papad may also contain rice, jackfruit, sabudana, etc. as main ingredients, cracked black pepper, red chilli powder, asafoetida, or cumin or sesame seeds are often used as flavouring agents. Papad is often associated with the empowerment of women in India, many individual and organized businesses run by women produce papad, pickles, and other snacks. This provides them regular income from minimal financial investments, however, with the recent growth of modern trade in India and the growing consumer awareness, other brands have been gaining in popularity within this category. Some divergence of transliteration may be noted in the consonant in the Hindi/Urdu word pāpaṛ. The sound is the flap, which is written in Hindi with the Devanagari letter ड़. Although in IAST the Hindi letter ड़ is transliterated as <ṛ>, popular or nonstandard transliterations of Hindi use <d> for this sound, because etymologically it derives from ड /ɖ/
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Carbohydrate
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A carbohydrate is a biological molecule consisting of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms, usually with a hydrogen–oxygen atom ratio of 2,1, in other words, with the empirical formula Cmn. This formula holds true for monosaccharides, some exceptions exist, for example, deoxyribose, a sugar component of DNA, has the empirical formula C5H10O4. Carbohydrates are technically hydrates of carbon, structurally it is accurate to view them as polyhydroxy aldehydes and ketones. The term is most common in biochemistry, where it is a synonym of saccharide, a group that includes sugars, starch, the saccharides are divided into four chemical groups, monosaccharides, disaccharides, oligosaccharides, and polysaccharides. Monosaccharides and disaccharides, the smallest carbohydrates, are referred to as sugars. The word saccharide comes from the Greek word σάκχαρον, meaning sugar, while the scientific nomenclature of carbohydrates is complex, the names of the monosaccharides and disaccharides very often end in the suffix -ose. For example, grape sugar is the glucose, cane sugar is the disaccharide sucrose. Carbohydrates perform numerous roles in living organisms, polysaccharides serve for the storage of energy and as structural components. The 5-carbon monosaccharide ribose is an important component of coenzymes and the backbone of the genetic molecule known as RNA, the related deoxyribose is a component of DNA. Saccharides and their derivatives include many other important biomolecules that play key roles in the system, fertilization, preventing pathogenesis, blood clotting. In food science and in informal contexts, the term carbohydrate often means any food that is particularly rich in the complex carbohydrate starch or simple carbohydrates. Often in lists of information, such as the USDA National Nutrient Database, the term carbohydrate is used for everything other than water, protein, fat, ash. This will include chemical compounds such as acetic or lactic acid, carbohydrates are found in wide variety of foods. The important sources are cereals, potatoes, sugarcane, fruits, table sugar, bread, milk, starch and sugar are the important carbohydrates in our diet. Starch is abundant in potatoes, maize, rice and other cereals, sugar appears in our diet mainly as sucrose which is added to drinks and many prepared foods such as jam, biscuits and cakes. Glucose and fructose are found naturally in fruits and some vegetables. Glycogen is carbohydrate found in the liver and muscles, cellulose in the cell wall of all plant tissue is a carbohydrate. It is important in our diet as fibre which helps to maintain a healthy digestive system, formerly the name carbohydrate was used in chemistry for any compound with the formula Cm n
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Sugar
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Sugar is the generic name for sweet, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. There are various types of derived from different sources. Simple sugars are called monosaccharides and include glucose, fructose, the table sugar or granulated sugar most customarily used as food is sucrose, a disaccharide of glucose and fructose. Sugar is used in prepared foods and it is added to some foods, in the body, sucrose is hydrolysed into the simple sugars fructose and glucose. Other disaccharides include maltose from malted grain, and lactose from milk, longer chains of sugars are called oligosaccharides or polysaccharides. Some other chemical substances, such as glycerol may also have a sweet taste, low-calorie food substitutes for sugar, described as artificial sweeteners, include aspartame and sucralose, a chlorinated derivative of sucrose. Sugars are found in the tissues of most plants and are present in sufficient concentrations for efficient commercial extraction in sugarcane, the world production of sugar in 2011 was about 168 million tonnes. The average person consumes about 24 kilograms of sugar each year, equivalent to over 260 food calories per person, since the latter part of the twentieth century, it has been questioned whether a diet high in sugars, especially refined sugars, is good for human health. Sugar has been linked to obesity, and suspected of, or fully implicated as a cause in the occurrence of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dementia, macular degeneration, the etymology reflects the spread of the commodity. The English word sugar ultimately originates from the Sanskrit शर्करा, via Arabic سكر as granular or candied sugar, the contemporary Italian word is zucchero, whereas the Spanish and Portuguese words, azúcar and açúcar, respectively, have kept a trace of the Arabic definite article. The Old French word is zuchre and the contemporary French, sucre, the earliest Greek word attested is σάκχαρις. The English word jaggery, a brown sugar made from date palm sap or sugarcane juice, has a similar etymological origin – Portuguese jagara from the Sanskrit शर्करा. Sugar has been produced in the Indian subcontinent since ancient times and it was not plentiful or cheap in early times and honey was more often used for sweetening in most parts of the world. Originally, people chewed raw sugarcane to extract its sweetness, sugarcane was a native of tropical South Asia and Southeast Asia. Different species seem to have originated from different locations with Saccharum barberi originating in India and S. edule, one of the earliest historical references to sugarcane is in Chinese manuscripts dating back to 8th century BC that state that the use of sugarcane originated in India. Sugar was found in Europe by the 1st century AD, but only as an imported medicine and it is a kind of honey found in cane, white as gum, and it crunches between the teeth. It comes in lumps the size of a hazelnut, sugar is used only for medical purposes. Sugar remained relatively unimportant until the Indians discovered methods of turning sugarcane juice into granulated crystals that were easier to store, crystallized sugar was discovered by the time of the Imperial Guptas, around the 5th century AD
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Dietary fiber
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Dietary fiber or roughage is the indigestible portion of food derived from plants. It has two components, Soluble fiber, which dissolves in water, is readily fermented in the colon into gases and physiologically active byproducts. It delays gastric emptying which in turn can cause a feeling of fullness. Insoluble fiber, which does not dissolve in water, is inert and provides bulking, or it can be prebiotic. Bulking fibers absorb water as they move through the digestive system, Dietary fibers can act by changing the nature of the contents of the gastrointestinal tract and by changing how other nutrients and chemicals are absorbed. Some types of soluble fiber absorb water to become a gelatinous, viscous substance which is fermented by bacteria in the digestive tract, some types of insoluble fiber have bulking action and are not fermented. Lignin, a major dietary insoluble fiber source, may alter the rate, other types of insoluble fiber, notably resistant starch, are fully fermented. A novel position has been adopted by the US Department of Agriculture to include functional fibers as isolated fiber sources that may be included in the diet, the term fiber is something of a misnomer, since many types of so-called dietary fiber are not actually fibrous. Food sources of fiber are often divided according to whether they provide soluble or insoluble fiber. Plant foods contain both types of fiber in varying degrees, according to the plants characteristics, a disadvantage of a diet high in fiber is the potential for significant intestinal gas production and bloating. Originally, fiber was defined to be the components of plants that resist human digestive enzymes, the definition was later changed to also include resistant starch, along with inulin and other oligosaccharides. Official definition of dietary fiber differs a little among different institutions, Dietary fibers are found in fruits, vegetables, the exact amount of fiber contained in the food can be seen in the following table of expected fiber in USDA food groups/subgroups Dietary fiber is found in plants. While all plants contain some fiber, plants with high concentrations are generally the most practical source. Fiber-rich plants can be eaten directly, or, alternatively, they can be used to make supplements and fiber-rich processed foods. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, formerly the American Dietetic Association, some plants contain significant amounts of soluble and insoluble fiber. For example, plums and prunes have a thick skin covering a juicy pulp, the skin is a source of insoluble fiber, whereas soluble fiber is in the pulp. Grapes also contain an amount of fiber. The root of the plant, or glucomannan, produces results similar to fiber
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Fat
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Fat is one of the three main macronutrients, along with carbohydrate and protein. Fats, also known as triglycerides, are esters of three fatty acid chains and the alcohol glycerol, the terms oil, fat, and lipid are often confused. Oil normally refers to a fat with short or unsaturated fatty acid chains that is liquid at room temperature, lipid is the general term, as a lipid is not necessarily a triglyceride. Fats, like lipids, are generally hydrophobic, and are soluble in organic solvents. Fat is an important foodstuff for many forms of life, and they are a necessary part of the diet of most heterotrophs. Some fatty acids that are set free by the digestion of fats are called essential because they cannot be synthesized in the body from simpler constituents, there are two essential fatty acids in human nutrition, alpha-linolenic acid and linoleic acid. Other lipids needed by the body can be synthesized from these, fats and other lipids are broken down in the body by enzymes called lipases produced in the pancreas. Fats and oils are categorized according to the number and bonding of the atoms in the aliphatic chain. Fats that are saturated fats have no double bonds between the carbons in the chain, unsaturated fats have one or more double bonded carbons in the chain. The nomenclature is based on the end of the chain. This end is called the end or the n-end. Thus alpha-linolenic acid is called an omega-3 fatty acid because the 3rd carbon from that end is the first double bonded carbon in the counting from that end. Some oils and fats have double bonds and are therefore called polyunsaturated fats. Unsaturated fats can be divided into cis fats, which are the most common in nature, and trans fats. Unsaturated fats can be altered by reaction with hydrogen effected by a catalyst and this action, called hydrogenation, tends to break all the double bonds and makes a fully saturated fat. However, trans fats are generated during hydrogenation as contaminants created by a side reaction on the catalyst during partial hydrogenation. Saturated fats can stack themselves in a closely packed arrangement, so they can easily and are typically solid at room temperature. For example, animal fats tallow and lard are high in saturated fatty acid content and are solids, olive and linseed oils on the other hand are unsaturated and liquid
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Protein (nutrient)
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Proteins are essential nutrients for the human body. They are one of the blocks of body tissue. As a fuel, proteins provide as much energy density as carbohydrates,4 kcal per gram, in contrast, the most important aspect and defining characteristic of protein from a nutritional standpoint is its amino acid composition. Proteins are polymer chains made of amino acids linked together by peptide bonds, during human digestion, proteins are broken down in the stomach to smaller polypeptide chains via hydrochloric acid and protease actions. This is crucial for the synthesis of the amino acids that cannot be biosynthesized by the body. There are nine amino acids which humans must obtain from their diet in order to prevent protein-energy malnutrition. They are phenylalanine, valine, threonine, tryptophan, methionine, leucine, isoleucine, lysine, there are five dispensable amino acids which humans are able to synthesize in the body. These five are alanine, aspartic acid, asparagine, glutamic acid and these six are arginine, cysteine, glycine, glutamine, proline and tyrosine. Humans need the essential amino acids in certain ratios, some protein sources contain amino acids in a more or less complete sense. This has given rise to various ranking systems for protein sources, Dietary sources of protein include both animals and plants, meats, dairy products, fish and eggs as well as grains, legumes and nuts. Vegetarians and vegans can get enough essential amino acids by eating a variety of plant proteins and it is commonly believed that athletes should consume a higher-than-normal protein intake to maintain optimal physical performance. Protein is a nutrient needed by the body for growth. Aside from water, proteins are the most abundant kind of molecules in the body, Protein can be found in all cells of the body and is the major structural component of all cells in the body, especially muscle. This also includes body organs, hair and skin, proteins are also used in membranes, such as glycoproteins. When broken down into amino acids, they are used as precursors to acid, co-enzymes, hormones, immune response, cellular repair. Additionally, protein is needed to form blood cells, proteins are believed to increase performance in terms of athletics. Amino acids, the blocks of proteins, are used for building muscle tissue. Protein is only used as fuel when carbohydrates are low
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Vitamin
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A vitamin is an organic compound and a vital nutrient that an organism requires in limited amounts. For example, ascorbic acid is a vitamin for humans, supplementation is important for the treatment of certain health problems, but there is little evidence of nutritional benefit when used by otherwise healthy people. Thirteen vitamins are universally recognized at present, Vitamins are classified by their biological and chemical activity, not their structure. Thus, each vitamin refers to a number of compounds that all show the biological activity associated with a particular vitamin. Such a set of chemicals is grouped under an alphabetized vitamin generic descriptor title, such as vitamin A, which includes the compounds retinal, retinol, and four known carotenoids. Vitamers by definition are convertible to the form of the vitamin in the body. Some, such as vitamin D, have hormone-like functions as regulators of mineral metabolism, or regulators of cell and tissue growth and differentiation. The largest number of vitamins, the B complex vitamins, function as cofactors or the precursors for them. In this role, vitamins may be bound to enzymes as part of prosthetic groups, For example. They may also be less tightly bound to enzyme catalysts as coenzymes, for example, folic acid may carry methyl, formyl, and methylene groups in the cell. Although these roles in assisting enzyme-substrate reactions are vitamins best-known function, study of structural activity, function and their role in maintaining health is called vitaminology. Each vitamin is typically used in reactions, and therefore most have multiple functions. Vitamins are essential for the growth and development of a multicellular organism. Using the genetic blueprint inherited from its parents, a fetus begins to develop from the nutrients it absorbs and it requires certain vitamins and minerals to be present at certain times. These nutrients facilitate the chemical reactions that produce among other things, skin, bone, if there is serious deficiency in one or more of these nutrients, a child may develop a deficiency disease. Even minor deficiencies may cause permanent damage, for the most part, vitamins are obtained with food, but a few are obtained by other means. Humans can produce some vitamins from precursors they consume, examples include vitamin A, produced from beta carotene, and niacin, from the amino acid tryptophan. In those who are healthy, there is little evidence that supplements have any benefits with respect to cancer or heart disease
