Rainbow of carrot

2002/05/22 Galarraga Aiestaran, Ana - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Nekazaritza
• Dietetika/Elikagaiak

Purple carrots are orange from the inside and traders believe they will help children accept the vegetables. Simple carrots, that is, orange carrots, are very healthy because they have a form of vitamin A, beta carotene, necessary for the sight and skin to be well. Purple also contain anthocyanin, a pigment that is considered protective against certain types of cancer.

Carrot has been a very appreciated fruit in medicine. For example, in the Middle Ages, from syphilis to dog bite, it was used to cure a lot of diseases. Earlier, the ancient Greeks believed that the passion for male sex and female fertility increased.

It is clear, therefore, that carrots are not from yesterday morning. However, the first carrots did not resemble the current ones. In the current territory of Afghanistan have been found carrot roots of 5,000 years ago, and a. C. C. The plant also appears in the drawings of the Egyptian temples of the year 2000. According to these remains, the carrot was purple, smaller and colorful than the current one.

For centuries, Arab traders deployed their carrot seeds through the commercial routes of Arabia, Asia and Africa. In those times there were acenarios of various colors: white, yellow, red, green, black and, how not, purple. Then, XII. In the twentieth century, the Moors introduced purple and yellow carrots in southern Europe and in the XIII. In the twentieth century they grew up in France and Germany. Instead, Britain was not the XV. They arrived until the nineteenth century, by the hand of the flamingos.

XVIII. In the twentieth century, the Dutch were the most expert in carrot cultivation, and as they wanted, they improved and extended the orange colors. It was, apparently, to give carrots a ‘national’ characteristic, for which yellow carrots were cultivated, mixed with purple to obtain reds. Through successive hybridizations, the most widespread orange carrot was obtained today.

Although the purple carrots that will now be put on sale in Britain have grown on British soil, studies to achieve this variety have been carried out in the Netherlands. A posteriori, they want to offer other colors. By the way, it should be noted that they are somewhat more expensive than normal ones (2€ versus 1.8€). If with this the child ate the puree easier!