History and the origin of blackcurrant

The genus Ribes, was classified to the Saxifragaceae family originally, but was later placed within the Grossulariaceae family on the basis of morphological traits such as the presence of inferior ovaries, syncarpous gymnosperm and fleshy fruit. The blackcurrants are natives of Sweden and northern parts of Russia, as well as the northern counties of England.

The word “currant” is originating from the ancient Greek word for the city Corinth and was used to illustrate grapes grown in the region. Early references to Ribes currants use words like corinthes, corans, currans, and bastarde corinthes. The known blackcurrant culture in farms and gardens dates back at least as far as the Renaissance in Europe.

Blackcurrants have been cultivated in northern Europe for more than400 years and records were first described by the 17thcentury herbalists, e.g. Gerard (1636), referring to the use of blackcurrants as ingredients in tea and medical concoctions.

The use of blackcurrants fruit as a herbal medicine emerged in the Middle Ages. In the 16th century, European herbalists started to recommend Ribes berries or their syrup for the treatment of several illnesses, including bladder stones and liver disorders, cough and lung ailments.

In England blackcurrants were once called ‘squinancy berries’ because they were used to treat quinsy.

These small berries don’t appear to have been cultivated until around 1500. During 1700s , blackcurrants were domesticated in eastern Europe and sold to farmer’s markets in Russia. Blackcurrants were introduced in the USA along with red currants in the seventeenth century, but received little interest in terms of their domestication and cultivation.

During the Second World War blackcurrant cultivation was encouraged by British government due to in part the fruit’s suitability to the UK weather and the berries’ high content of vitamin C.

Nowadays blackcurrants are the leaders Ribes crop worldwide and are still mainly processed rather than used fresh, due to their strong flavor.
History and the origin of blackcurrant

Black mulberry

Black mulberry (Morus nigra) is a member of genus Morus of Moraceae family which has been domesticated over thousands of years. Naturally the black mulberry is now well adapted to a wide range of tropical, subtropical and temperate regions of Asia, Europe, North and South America.

In Asian countries, mulberry plants have been grown for the production of silk worms (Bombyx mori L.), because their leaves are a major and important nutrient source for silk worms.

Morus nigra is believed to have originated from Iran. It was known to the Greeks and Romans before the Christian era. It was also cultivated in ancient Egypt. The tree was introduced into America for silkworm culture in early colonial times and naturalized and hybridized with the native red mulberry. The red or American mulberry is native to eastern United States from Massachusetts to Kansas and down to the Gulf coast.

Most European countries have usually used mulberry fruits to prepare jams, marmalades, vinegars, juices, wine, distillates or canned goods and cosmetic products.

Various parts of mulberry plants have also been used as traditional herbal medicines. Presence of proanthocyanins and anthocyanes makes the fruit suitable for application in some types of cancer and have positive effect on regeneration tissues after the ischemic stroke, and supports the kidney function.

Mulberries are an excellent source of iron, which is a rare feature among berries. They are rich in B-complex group of vitamins and vitamin K and contain good amounts of niacin, pyridoxine and riboflavin. These vitamins function as co-factors and are helpful in the metabolism of carbohydrates, proteins and fats.

The leaves contain high amount of calcium carbonate, adenine, glucose, mineral salts and tannin with antibacterial effects; hence, applied for treatment of cold and fever, headache, for stimulation of the insulin production, in cases of snake bites or as antidote in case of poisoning with Aconitum napellus.
Black mulberry

Banana fruit in history

Portuguese sailors brought bananas to Europe from West Africa in the early fifteenth century. Portuguese called it by its Arab name of al-vaneyra. The islanders of Sao Tome called the fruit abana. Its Guinean name banema, which became banana in English, was first found in print in the seventeenth century.

The original banana has been cultivated and used since ancient times, even pre-dating the cultivation of rice. The wild ancestor of edible bananas (M. acuminata Colla and M. balbisiana Colla), except for the fe’i bananas, are centered in Malesia, a term that refers to the entire region from Thailand to New Guinea roughly the main trading are of the Malay mariners.

Bananas may initially have been introduced into Africa by Arab traders who brought the plants from Malaysia. By the fourteenth century banana had colonized the whole of Africa. An Arab traveler mentions it as existing in the south of Morocco.

The banana was carried by sailors to the Canary Islands and the West Indies, finally making it to North America with Spanish missionary Friar Tomas de Berlanga is believed to have been the first to bring bananas plants to the New World.

Friar Tomas de Berlanga set up the first New World banana plantation in 1516. Banana plantation were soon established throughout European colonies in the Caribbean as well as in South and Central America.

The yellow sweet banana, much different than its starchy cousin the plantain was discovered in 1836 in Jamaica Jean Francois Poujot, who found one of the banana trees on his plantation was bearing yellow fruit rather than green or red. Upon tasting the new discovery, he found it to be sweet in its raw state, without the need for cooking. He quickly began cultivating this sweet variety.

The sweet banana quickly made its way around the fledging colonies and onto Europe, where it was used extensively in baked goods and desserts.

Soon they were being imported from the Caribbean to New Orleans, Boston, and New York, and were considered such an exotic treat, they were eaten on a plate using a knife and fork.

In the United States, the banana was initially regarded as a luxury fruit and a foreign one at that. Bananas began appearing in New Orleans markets during the 1830s and 1840s. Sweet bananas were all the rage at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, selling for a hefty ten cents each.
Banana fruit in history

Origin of bael fruit

Beal fruit has been known in India since ancient times, and the tree on which it grows is regarded as sacred.  The history of this tree has been traced to Vedic period (2000 BC – 800 BC). The mention of bale fruit has been made in Yajurveda.

The tree has great mythological significance and abounds in the vicinity of temples. The leaves of the tree are traditionally used as sacred offering to Lord Siva, the God of health.

In the ‘Upavna Vinoda’, a Sanskrit treatise on silviculture and in the ‘Brihat Samhita’, mention was made of bael fruit. It has been said that this tree indicates the presence of underground water.

Three reaches about 40 feet in height and its fruit are generally about 2 to 5 inches across. The Portuguese called them marmelos because they gave the flavor of marmalade and can be eaten raw.

Garcia d’Orta who resided in India as physician to the Portuguese viceroy at Goa in the 16th century, wrote an account of the fruit under the name of Marmelos de Benguala, describing its use in dysentery.
Origin of bael fruit 

The origin of peaches

Peaches and nectarines are the same species Prunus persica. China is the center of origin of peaches.  

Chinese literature dates its cultivation in China to 1000 BC, when book of poems and songs was written describing pink peach blossoms and peach tree with ripe fruit. The Romans acquired the peach from Persia and named the fruit persica, assuming Persia to have been the center of origin of peaches.

The Romans spread peaches throughout their empire.

The peach is said to have been first cultivated in England about the middle of the sixteenth century, Gerard describes several varieties of peach as growing in his garden. Tusser mentions it among his list of fruits in 1557.

Peaches were introduced to the New World following the Spanish conquest.

In North America, it was only after the American Revolution in the 1770s when clonal propagation of peaches became a common technique.

Several peach cultivars were released between the 1770s and 1860s from selected seedling of unknown parentage.

A number of cultivars of unknown origin were released in the first half of the 1800s including Early Crawford, Late Crawford and Oldmixon Cling.

About 1850, Charles Downing introduced peaches directly from China to North America, from which emerged the Chinese Cling.  After Civil War, Samuel Rumph planted Chinese Cling in Marshallville, Georgia and released two important cultivars from that field, Elberta and Belle of Georgia.

Chinese Cling and its seedlings such as Elberta, Belle of Georgia, J.H Hale and their derivatives became important peach cultivars throughout the USA.
The origin of peaches

Mandarin orange (Citrus reticulata)

The mandarin orange (Citrus reticulata) does not appear to have reach Europe until the nineteenth century.

They were grown in China for about 3,000 years as evidenced by their description in the list of tribute articles sent to the Chinese ruler around 2200 BC.

In Tang times, the fruiting of mandarin trees in the imperial gardens, apparently indoors, led to ‘formal congratulation to the monarch on his divine charisma’.

The first mandarins grown in the Mediterranean region appear to have been those planted by the Arabs in various parts of North Africa.

Mandarin is a very interesting citrus fruit. The fruit is small, flattened fruit with a thin rind separating very easily form the pulp, frequently parting from it of itself, and leaving a partially hollow space.

The flesh is dark orange colored, juicy and very rich.

Mandarin trees are adaptable to a wider range of climatic conditions that other types of cultivated trees. They are better able to stand heat than most other types.

They also tend to be more cold resistant than other citrus trees of commercial importance, though the fruit, mainly because it is small and thin skinned, is more readily damaged by cold than are other oranges.

The flavor of the mandarin is somewhat sweeter and less turpenoid than orange owing to a greater amount of trace esters.

Most of the United States mandarin crop comes from Arizona which produces tangelos, Temple oranges and tangerines.
Mandarin orange (Citrus reticulata)

History and origin of pomelo

The origin of the pomelo was almost certainly in the region of Malaysia and Indonesia. The pomelo also grew wild in part of China. It has been gathered and cultivated by the Chinese for thousands of years.

In Yu Kung manuscript it was said that the larger pomelo was among the tributes ‘wrapped in an embroidered silk scarf at the bottom of a basket’ offered to the Emperor Tayun who reigned from 2205 to 2197 BC.

The pomelo was the ancestors of the grapefruit. The word pomelo is related to the Dutch pampelmoose, and the French pamplemousse (grapefruit), and the French pomme (apple).

The orange and pomelo both took the Silk Road and the path trodden by Chinese medicine to Europe through the East, each going at its own pace.

In the mid-17th century the pomelo was introduced to the W. Indies, where citrus cultivation was already well established.

The pomelo spread to other Caribbean islands, and in 1707 British traveller Hans Sloane remarked that pomelos from Barbados tasted better than those from Jamaica.
History and origin of pomelo

The history of rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum)

The commonly used name of ‘rambutan’ is derived from the Malay word ‘rambut’ which means ‘hair’ and is in general use in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Rambutan is thought to be indigenous to the Malay Peninsula, though it long history of domestication makes its origins difficult to ascertain.

The rambutan was taken to the Philippines from Indonesia in 1912. Further introductions were made in 1920 (from Indonesia) and 1930 (from Malaya), but until the 1950's its distribution was rather limited.

The plant also cultivated throughout the humid tropics of Asia (Sri Lanka to New Guinea) and is small numbers in the humid tropics of America, Africa and Australia.

In Malaysia, the earliest record of cultivars trials date from 1932, resulting in the registration in 1952, of 32 clones by the Malayan Department of Agriculture.

Rambutan has been classified as an underutilized fruit crops, but has grown in commercial importance. 

Thailand is the largest global producer of rambutan and the crop also is grown for domestic and export markets in Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Australia, Sri Lanka, Central America, South Africa and United States.
The history of rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum)

History and origin of pomegranate

Human use of pomegranate has a long history, with cultivation projected as early as 3000 BC.

The cultivation of the pomegranate began in the ancient culture of Northern India, particularly the Indus Valley, adjoining Persia and ancient Bactria.

The seeds have been a Hebrew symbol of fertility since biblical times, and the fruit once formed part of the decoration on the pillars of King Solomon’s temple. The Bible notes that King Solomon has large a planting of pomegranates. 

The pomegranate was introduced to the Mediterranean as far west as Spain and Portugal from western Asia by ancient sailors and traders. It was introduced from Carthage to ancient Rome. The fruit is one of the symbols of the love goddess Aphrodite, is central to the Greek myth of Persephone.

In classical Latin, the fruit was known either as Malum punicum or Malum granatum.

In the 16th century, Spanish missionaries brought the plant to the New World. It is mainly grown in California and Arizona.
History and origin of pomegranate

Fruit of mangosteen

Garcinia mangostana L., family Clusiaceae (Guttiferae)
Mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana L.) is known as the “Queen of Fruits”. Its origin is in Southeast Asia, probably the Malay Archipelago.

It can now be found in Northern Australia, Brazil, Burma, Central America, Hawaii, Southern India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Siri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, and other tropical countries.

Mangosteen is one of the most widely recognized tropical fruits and has universal appeal because of its quality in color, shape and flavor. Demand often exceeds supply. The fruit is 2-3 in ( cm) in diameter.

A thick reddish-purple rind covers the aril or pulp which is segmented like that of an orange.

The white, moist, soft and juicy flesh is sweet and aromatic, has a high sugar content, but is low in vitamins and minerals. It is usually eaten fresh, but can be stored successfully for short periods of time.

It is also canned, frozen, or made into juice, preserves, and syrup. Mangosteen is also used as a pharmaceutical.
Food Fruit

The Origin of Blackberries

Called ‘bramble’ or brymbyl in old English and ‘brombeere’ in German, the ancient Anglo-Saxons baked brambleberries into primitive pies to celebrate the first fruit feast of Lughnasadh at the beginning of August.

Blackberries are native to Asia, Europe. North America, Australia, Africa and South America and have the most widespread geographic origin of any fruit crop.

It follows that blackberries grown in specific regions are largely derived from species indigenous to those regions and no singles species dominates world production.

Blackberries have been used in Europe for over 2000 years; they are consumed as food, employed for medicinal purposes, and planted in hedgerows to keep out intruders.

Medicinally, Galen prescribes a decoction of blackberries, while Palladius gives a recipe for diamoron, blackberry syrup, made with two parts juice to one part honey.

The blackberry is not consistently distinguished in Greek from the mulberry, a superficially similar fruit.

Ancient Greek relied on blackberry to treat gout. And it was so influential in Europe that well into the 18th century, the fruit was called goutberry.

10th century Arab physician considered the fruit to be aphrodisiac.

The blackberries appear to have been cultivated in Europe only a few years before they were cultivated in North America; a European cultivar was introduced into North America in 1850.

The early setters of Europe and North America found wild blackberries growing in abundance. Although some were harvested for food, the majority, because of their thorniness and vigorous growth, were look upon as a nuisance that interfered with land clearing and cultivation.

About 1930, a thornless plant of the cut leaf European blackberries was discovered.
The Origin of Blackberries

Ancient Blueberries

This berry has several names – whortleberry, bilberry, hurtleberry and cousins – saskatoons and huckleberry.

Many botanists believe a blueberry antecedent could be the most ancient living thing on earth, stepping up to the cereal bowl at the whopping 13,00 years old.

Primitive man was a hunter and a collector and one of the things they liked collecting were berries. Blueberries being chock full of antioxidants and nutrients, were a chief sources of nutrition for many ancient civilizations.

During the times of the Greeks and Romans, blueberry relatives were an important part of the daily diet.

The harvest time of blueberries since ancient times has been a time of celebration.

Indian in North America have gathered the fruit for centuries an still continues considerably to the harvest. It was them who introduced the practice of burning to control encroaching shrubs, trees and other unwanted ‘weeds’ and to kill the pests and diseases that invade the blueberry patches.

The Indians who lived on the sores of what is now called Lake Huron mixed powdered, dried berries with water, cornmeal and wild honey to make pudding, reported by observer and explorer in the early 17th century.
Ancient Blueberries

The Origin of Mangosteen

The place of origin of the mangosteen is unknown but is believed to be in Malay Archipelago or the Sunda Islands and the Moluccas.

There was a suggestion that the tree may have been first domesticated was done in Thailand and Burma. It is much cultivated in Thailand–where there were 9,700 acres (4,000 ha) in 1965–also in Kampuchea, southern Vietnam and Burma, throughout Malaya and Singapore.

The mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana L.) was named after the French explorer Laurent Garcia (1683-1751) and has been in cultivation for a considerable time in various parts of humid tropics.
The tree was planted in Ceylon about 1800 and in India in 1881. There it succeeds in 4 limited areas–the Nilgiri Hills, the Tinnevelly district of southern Madras, the Kanya-kumani district at the southernmost tip of the Madras peninsula, and in Kerala State in southwestern India.

It is rare in Queensland, where it has been tried many times since 1854, and poorly represented in tropical Africa (Zanzibar, Ghana, Gabon and Liberia). There were fruiting trees in greenhouses in England in 1855.

The mangosteen is gaining popularity in the international market and recent demands for exported fruit have prompted growers to consider this crop with renewed interest.
The Origin of Mangosteen

Almond: Origin and History of Cultivation

Almond: Origin and History of Cultivation
Almond and related species are nature to the Mediterranean climate region of the Middle East (Pakistan eastward to Syria ad Turkey).

The almond and its close relative, the peach, probably evolved from the same ancestral species in south central Asia.

The original population of peach-almond progenitor species was separated by the formation of mountain ranges in southern Asia millions of years ago.

The resulting climate change allowed almonds to evolved in the arid western part of this region, while peaches evolved in the humid eastern of south central China.

Almonds were domesticated at least by 3000 BC, and perhaps much earlier, since wild almonds have been unearthed in Greek archaeological sites dating to 8000 BC.

In the wild state most species of almonds are bitter and unpalatable, as they contain the cyanide-releasing compound amygdalin.

Presence of amygdalin in almonds is controlled by a single dominant gene; thus, a simple mutation would produce non bitter almonds, and by chance, early farmers found these trees occasionally.

Trial and error combined with the selection of the best tasting almonds of plant new trees eventually led to the domestication of modern, sweet almonds.

The almond was spread along the shores of the Mediterranean in northern Africa and southern Europe by Egyptians Greeks, and Romans.

It was brought to California in the 1700s, by Spanish padres who settle the mission at Santa Barbara.

Larger plantings did not occur until the mid 1800s.

Around the turn of the century, the industry started in California, due to development of superior cultivars in the late 1800s.

Tariffs on almond imports were levied to protect the industry. For then until about 1960, the industry grew at a moderate pace, but acreage and production have increased several folds since then, making California the clear world leader in almond production.
Almond: Origin and History of Cultivation

Cavendish Banana

Cavendish Banana
Cavendish banana is common in the world banana trade. It is cultivars originating in Vietnam and China.

It becomes replacement for Gros Michel banana in the 1950s. Bananas first became widely popular in the 1800s, when railway companies started establishing plantations of Gros Michel or “Big Michael” bananas along their tracks.

These bananas could be easily transported once they were ripe, generating double profits for the railway by allowing the company to charge for passengers and freight, and to transport a costly exotic food on the same train.

By the 1920s, however, a problem was starting to develop with the Big Michael cultivar; the bananas were susceptible to Panama Disease, a fungus which attacks and kills banana plants. In the 1950s, it was clear that this cultivar was in trouble, and the Cavendish banana was selected to replace it.

Cavendish banana plantations can be found in Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia and the bulk of bananas on the shelves of Western supermarkets are Cavendish banana.

Cavendish banana range from approximately 15-25 c, in length and are used in baking, fruit salads, and to compliment foods.

The outer skin is partially green when sold in food markets and turns yellow when it ripens. When over-ripe, the skin will turn black and the flesh becomes mushy.

Bananas ripen naturally and are at their peak ripeness when the peel is all yellow with a few dark brown specks beginning to appear.

The Cavendish is quite possibly the world’s perfect food. They are nutritious and convenient, there are cheap and consistently available.

Americans eat more bananas than any other kind of fresh fruit, averaging about 26.2 pounds of them per year, per person.

It also turn out that 100 billion Cavendish bananas consumed annually worldwide are perfect from a genetic standpoint, every single one a duplicate of every other.
Cavendish Banana

Almond: Origins and History of Cultivations

Almond: Origins and History of Cultivations
Almond and related species are native to the Mediterranean climate region of the Middle East (Pakistan eastward to Syria and Turkey).

The almond and its close relative, the peach probably evolved from the same ancestral species in south-central Asia.

The regional population of peach-almond progenitor species was separated by the formation of mountain ranges in southern Asian millions of years ago.

The resulting climate change allowed almonds to evolve on the arid western part of this region, while peaches evolved in the humid eastern areas of south-central China.

Almonds were domesticated at least by 3000 BC, and perhaps much earlier, since wild almonds have been unearthed in Greek archaeological sites dating to 8000 BC.

In the wild state, most species of almonds are bitter and unpalatable, as they contain the cyanide releasing compound amygdalin.

Presence of amygdalin in almonds, and by chance, early farmers found these trees occasionally.

Trial and errors combined with selection of the best tasting almonds to plant new trees eventually led to the domestication of modern, sweet almonds.

The almond was spread along the shores of the Mediterranean in northern Africa and southern Europe by Egyptians, Greeks and Romans.

It was brought to California in the 1700s by Spanish padres who settled the mission at Santa Barbara.

Larger plantings did not occur until the mid 1800s. Around the turn of century, the industry started in California, due to development of superior cultivars in the late 1800s.

Tariffs on almond imports were levied to protect the industry.

From then until about 1960, the industry grew at a moderate pace, but acreage and production have decreased several folds since then, making California the clear world leader in almond production.

In 2004, there were 550,000 acres of almonds in California, making it the most widely planted tree crop in the state.
Almond: Origins and History of Cultivations

Rambutan

Food Fruit
Though a close relative of the lychee and an equally desirable fruit, this member of the Sapindaceae is not nearly as well-known. Botanically, it is Nephelium lappaceum L. (syns. Euphoria nephelium DC.; Dimocarpus crinita Lour.). 

In the vernacular, it is generally called rambutan (in French, ramboutan or ramboutanier; in Dutch, ramboetan); occasionally in India, ramboostan. 

To the Chinese it is shao tzu, to Vietnamese, chom chom or vai thieu; to Kampucheans, ser mon, or chle sao mao. There are other local names in the various dialects of southeast Asia and the East Indies.

The rambutan is native to Malaysia and commonly cultivated throughout the archipelago and southeast Asia. Many years ago, Arab traders introduced it into Zanzibar and Pemba. 

There are limited plantings in India, a few trees in Surinam, and in the coastal lowlands of Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Trinidad and Cuba. Some fruits are being marketed in Costa Rica. 

The rambutan was taken to the Philippines from Indonesia in 1912. Further introductions were made in 1920 (from Indonesia) and 1930 (from Malaya), but until the 1950's its distribution was rather limited. 

Then popular demand brought about systematic efforts to improve the crop and resulted in the establishment of many commercial plantations in the provinces of Batangas, Cavite, Davan, Iloilo, Laguna, Oriental Mindoro and Zamboanga. Seeds were imported into the United States from Java in 1906 but the species is not grown in this country.

Food Value Per 100 g of Edible Portion*
Moisture-82.3 g
Protein-0.46 g
Total Carbohydrates-16.02 g
Reducing Sugars-2.9 g
Sucrose-5.8 g
Fiber-0.24g
Calcium-10.6 mg
Phosphorus-12.9 mg
Ascorbic Acid-30 mg

Food fruit