Carrots

The carrot is a root vegetable, usually orange in colour, though purple, black, red,
white, and yellow varieties exist.

It has a crisp texture when fresh. The most commonly eaten part of a carrot is a
taproot, although the greens are sometimes eaten as well. It is a domesticated form
of the wild carrot Daucus carota, native to Europe and southwestern Asia. The
domestic carrot has been selectively bred for its greatly enlarged and more
palatable, less woody-textured edible taproot. The Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations reports that world production of carrots and
turnips for calendar year 2011 was almost 35.658 million tonnes. Almost half were
grown in China. Carrots are widely used in many cuisines, especially in the
preparation of salads, and carrot salads are a tradition in many regional cuisines.
Etymology
The word is first recorded in English around 1530 and was borrowed from Middle
French carotte, itself from Late Latin carta, from Greek karton, originally
from the Indo-European root ker-, due to its horn-like shape. In Old English, carrots
were not clearly distinguished from parsnips, the two being collectively called moru
or more . Various languages still use the same word for "carrot" as they do for
"root"; e.g. Finnish yrtti, Dutch wortel, German wurzel.
History
The wild ancestors of the carrot are likely to have come from Persia, which remain
the centre of diversity of Daucus carota, the wild carrot. A naturally occurring
subspecies of the wild carrot, Daucus carota subsp. sativus, has been selectively
bred over the centuries to reduce bitterness, increase sweetness and minimise the
woody core. This has produced the familiar garden vegetable. Some close relatives
of the carrot are still grown for their leaves and seeds, for example parsley, fennel,
dill and cumin. The first mention of the root in classical sources is during the 1st
century. The modern carrot originated in Afghanistan at about this time. The Jewish
scholar Simeon Seth describes both red and yellow carrots in the 11th century.
Orange-coloured carrots appeared in the Netherlands in the 17th century, which has
been related to the fact that the Dutch flag at the time, the Prince's Flag, included
orange. European settlers introduced the carrot to Colonial America in the 17th
century.
Daucus carota: bee's-nest, bee's-nest plant, bird's-nest, bird's-nest plant, bird's-nest
root, carota, carotte, carrot, common carrot, crow's-nest, daucon, dawke, devil'splague, fiddle, gallicam, garden carrot, gelbe Rbe, gingidium, hill-trot, laceflower,
mirrot, Mhre, parsnip, Queen Anne's lace, rantipole, staphylinos, and zanahoria .
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Purple carrots, still orange on the inside, were sold in British stores starting in 2002.
Most of the taproot consists of a pulpy outer cortex and an inner core . High-quality
carrots have a large proportion of cortex compared to core. Although a completely
xylem-free carrot is not possible, some cultivars have small and deeply pigmented
cores; the taproot can appear to lack a core when the colour of the cortex and core
are similar in intensity. Taproots typically have a long conical shape, although
cylindrical and round cultivars are available. The root diameter can range from to as
much as at the widest part. The root length ranges from, although most are
between .
Chemistry
Polyacetylenes can be found in Apiaceae vegetables like carrots where they show
cytotoxic activities. - and -carotenes are partly metabolized into vitamin A,
Carrots are 88% water, 4.7% sugar, 2.6% protein, 1% ash, and 0.2% fat. Free sugars
in carrot include sucrose, glucose and fructose.
Methods of consumption and uses
Carrots can be eaten in a variety of ways. Only 3 percent of the -carotene in raw
carrots is released during digestion: this can be improved to 39% by pulping,
cooking and adding cooking oil. Some people are allergic to carrots. In a 2010 study
on the prevalence of food allergies in Europe, 3.6 percent of young adults showed
some degree of sensitivity to carrots.
Since the late 1980s, baby carrots or mini-carrots have been a popular ready-to-eat
snack food available in many supermarkets. They grow best in full sun but tolerate
some shade. The ideal soil is deep, loose and well-drained, sandy or loamy, with a
pH of 6.3 to 6.8.
Cultivars
Carrot cultivars can be grouped into two broad classes, eastern carrots and western
carrots. A number of novelty cultivars have been bred for particular characteristics.
"Eastern" carrots were domesticated in Persia during the 10th century, or possibly
earlier. Specimens of the "eastern" carrot that survive to the present day are
commonly purple or yellow, and often have branched roots. The purple colour
common in these carrots comes from anthocyanin pigments. There is a popular
belief that its orange colour making it popular in those countries as an emblem of
the House of Orange and the struggle for Dutch independence, although there is
little evidence for this. Varieties include Danvers Half Long and Danvers 126.
Imperator carrots. This cultivar has vigorous foliage, is of high sugar content, and
has long and slender roots, tapering to a pointed tip. Imperator types are the most
widely cultivated by commercial growers.
Production trends
Carrot is one of the ten most economically important vegetables crops in the world.
In 2012, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations,
36.917 million tonnes of carrots and turnips were produced worldwide for human
consumption, grown on of land. With a total production of 16.907 million tonnes,
China was by far the largest producer and accounted for 45.8% of the global output,
followed by Russia, the United States, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Poland, and the United
Kingdom . About 62% of world carrot production occurred in Asia, followed by
Europe and the Americas . Less than 6% of the world's 2012 total production was
grown in Africa. Global production has increased from 21.4 million tonnes in 2000,
13.7 million tonnes in 1990, 10.4 million tonnes in 1980, and 7.85 million tonnes in
1970. The growth in global production is largely the result of increases in production
area rather than improvements in yield. Modest increases in the latter can be
attributed to optimised agricultural practices, the development of better cultivars,
and increased farm mechanisation.
Storage
Carrots can be stored for several months in the refrigerator or over winter in a
moist, cool place. For long term storage, unwashed carrots can be placed in a
bucket between layers of sand, a 50/50 mix of sand and wood shavings, or in soil. A
temperature range of 32 to 40 F is best.
Myth
Night Vision
The provitamin A beta-carotene from carrots does not actually help people to see in
the dark unless there is already a deficiency of vitamin A. This myth was
propaganda used by the Royal Air Force during the Second World War to explain
why their pilots had improved success during night air battles, but was actually
used to disguise advances in radar technology and the use of red lights on
instrument panels.

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The carrot is a root vegetable, usually orange in colour, though purple, black, red,

white, and yellow varieties exist.

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