The history of carrots (lat. daucus carota) is not entirely clear, it is shrouded in doubts and mysteries, and it is difficult to understand when it actually began to be cultivated. Unfortunately, archaeological excavations have not yet discovered the homeland of domestic carrots, therefore, due to the lack of documentary evidence, it is impossible to establish exactly where and when the cultivation of carrots began.

It is a very common myth that domestic carrots are descended from wild carrots. Although they have a similar smell and taste, wild carrots and domestic carrots have not been found to be the same species. Until today, botanists have not been able to develop an edible plant from a wild root crop. Edible carrots correspond to a completely different, distinct look.

It is assumed that the birthplace of carrots is Central Asia, but thousands of years before our era, carrots were also found in other places, since it was established that the ancient Egyptians, ancient Greeks and Romans knew carrots. According to the drawings in Egyptian tombs, it can be judged that carrots were used for healing. Still not knowing anything about vitamins, people noticed that carrots help the sick and weakened to recover, improve digestion, benefit vision, and act as a laxative. They say that the warriors who hid in the Trojan horse ate a lot of carrots the day before to cleanse their intestines and there were no problems at the crucial moment. But this, of course, is only a legend. The tops of carrots, which were used like other greens, paved the way to the table first. Some of the relatives of the carrot are still grown for this purpose, such as parsley, fennel, dill, and cumin, and the seeds are more commonly used medicinally.

Wild carrots are small, tough, light, or rather, bitter, with a white root. Domestic carrots are juicy, with a sweet root, usually orange in color. Evidence of modern carrots found in Afghanistan, the age of the find is about 5000 years. Interestingly, history shows that before the color of carrots was red, black, yellow, white and purple, but not orange! Our modern orange carrots came about thanks to the efforts of Dutch gardeners in the 16th and 17th centuries, as evidenced by the art of the time. At that time, such old Dutch masters as Joachim Bekelar, Joachim Wteval, Peter Arsten and many others depicted carrots on their canvases. There is one unconfirmed story that supposedly the color of the carrot - orange - was bred in honor of the Orange Prince William (William of Orange). Although orange carrots in Holland date back to the 16th century, historians believe it is unlikely that Orange William had anything to do with it. Some astute historians have created a myth that this vegetable mutation was bred as a token of gratitude and honor to King William I for leading the Dutch uprising against Spain, which led to the country's independence.

Here is another version: in Holland, where merchants of the East India Company brought carrots from Iran, orange carrots were bred by crossing red and yellow carrots in the 17th century. The fact is that the orange color of carrots corresponds to the traditional color of the Dutch Royal House of Orange-Nassau. This "royal" carrot was often depicted on their canvases by Dutch artists of the Golden Age. In 18th century Europe, it was also considered a delicacy. Peter the Great brought orange carrots to Russia along with potatoes, radishes, artichokes and other outlandish European vegetables.

Today, carrots are the second most popular fruit after potatoes. However, having studied its composition more closely, it is worth recognizing that this plant should have become the No. 1 vegetable. Carrots are rich in vitamins and minerals. It contains a lot of carotene - 9-10 mg per 100 g of the product, but there is little vitamin C in it - up to 5 mg per 100 g of the product, vitamins of group B are present in small amounts in carrots. It has a lot of carbohydrates (mainly glucose) - 6 %, about 1% of minerals - potassium, magnesium, sodium, calcium, iron, phosphorus, sulfur, etc., and 1-1.2% of proteins. The energy value of carrots is 29-31 kilocalories per 100 g of product.

Another nutrient in carrots that is unfairly under-reported is vitamin E, the so-called muscle vitamin. It contributes to the efficient use of oxygen by the entire musculature.

1. The ancient Greeks called carrots philtron, or "magic of love." They believed that carrots help you fall in love faster.
2. Some nations have a tradition of giving carrots to the bride so that she can be a good host in the kitchen.
3. Carrots are 87% water.
4. If there are too many carrots, the skin will turn yellowish-orange, especially the elbows and heels. This phenomenon is called Carotenemia. Fortunately, this disappears when a person starts eating less carrots.
5. By eating two medium-sized carrots a day, a person can lower blood cholesterol levels by 20%.
6. 9 carrots have as much calcium as a glass of milk.
7. Three medium-sized carrots provide the energy needed to walk 5 km.
8. The longest carrot in the world is 5.839 meters. She was raised in the UK in 1996. In turn, the largest vegetable was grown in Alaska (USA) in 1998, the weight of carrots was 8.6 kilograms.
9. Recently, one of the awards of the International Fair of Horticultural Products "Fruit Logistica" was received by a light snack originally from Italy Carrot Fetuccini - delicious and crispy carrots cut into ribbons.
10. Carrots are the first vegetable to be canned for wholesale.
11. Holtville, California calls itself the "Carrot Capital of the World" and hosts a Carrot Festival every year.
12. Breeders breed different varieties for different uses. For example, varieties grown by Vilmorin, Bolero F1 and Maestro F1 are the best suited for making juices - from these varieties you can get especially a lot of juice with good taste. Most of the varieties are bred so that the root crops are easy to wash, they have a particularly smooth surface. Even a special variety for cooking pilaf has been bred - “Kazan F1” (cauldrons in some Asian countries are called a cauldron for cooking pilaf) - shavings of this carrot do not change the traditional color of the dish.

The history of carrots (lat. daucus carota) is not entirely clear, it is shrouded in doubts and mysteries, and it is difficult to understand when it actually began to be cultivated. Unfortunately, archaeological excavations have not yet discovered the homeland of domestic carrots, therefore, due to the lack of documentary evidence, it is impossible to establish exactly where and when the cultivation of carrots began.

It is a very common myth that domestic carrots are descended from wild carrots. Although they have a similar smell and taste, wild carrots and domestic carrots have not been found to be the same species. Until today, botanists have not been able to develop an edible plant from a wild root crop. Edible carrots correspond to a completely different, distinct look.

It is assumed that the birthplace of carrots is Central Asia, but thousands of years before our era, carrots were also found in other places, since it was established that the ancient Egyptians, ancient Greeks and Romans knew carrots. According to the drawings in Egyptian tombs, it can be judged that carrots were used for healing. Still not knowing anything about vitamins, people noticed that carrots help the sick and weakened to recover, improve digestion, benefit vision, and act as a laxative. They say that the warriors who hid in the Trojan horse ate a lot of carrots the day before to cleanse their intestines and there were no problems at the crucial moment. But this, of course, is only a legend. The tops of carrots, which were used like other greens, paved the way to the table first. Some of the relatives of the carrot are still grown for this purpose, such as parsley, fennel, dill, and cumin, and the seeds are more commonly used medicinally.

Wild carrots are small, tough, light, or rather, bitter, with a white root. Domestic carrots are juicy, with a sweet root, usually orange in color. Evidence of modern carrots found in Afghanistan, the age of the find is about 5000 years. Interestingly, history shows that before the color of carrots was red, black, yellow, white and purple, but not orange! Our modern orange carrots came about thanks to the efforts of Dutch gardeners in the 16th and 17th centuries, as evidenced by the art of the time. At that time, such old Dutch masters as Joachim Bekelar, Joachim Wteval, Peter Arsten and many others depicted carrots on their canvases. There is one unconfirmed story that supposedly the color of the carrot - orange - was bred in honor of the Orange Prince William (William of Orange). Although orange carrots in Holland date back to the 16th century, historians believe it is unlikely that Orange William had anything to do with it. Some astute historians have created a myth that this vegetable mutation was bred as a token of gratitude and honor to King William I for leading the Dutch uprising against Spain, which led to the country's independence.

Here is another version: in Holland, where merchants of the East India Company brought carrots from Iran, orange carrots were bred by crossing red and yellow carrots in the 17th century. The fact is that the orange color of carrots corresponds to the traditional color of the Dutch Royal House of Orange-Nassau. This "royal" carrot was often depicted on their canvases by Dutch artists of the Golden Age. In 18th century Europe, it was also considered a delicacy. Peter the Great brought orange carrots to Russia along with potatoes, radishes, artichokes and other outlandish European vegetables.

Today, carrots are the second most popular fruit after potatoes. However, having studied its composition more closely, it is worth recognizing that this plant should have become the No. 1 vegetable. Carrots are rich in vitamins and minerals. It contains a lot of carotene - 9-10 mg per 100 g of the product, but there is little vitamin C in it - up to 5 mg per 100 g of the product, vitamins of group B are present in small amounts in carrots. It has a lot of carbohydrates (mainly glucose) - 6 %, about 1% of minerals - potassium, magnesium, sodium, calcium, iron, phosphorus, sulfur, etc., and 1-1.2% of proteins. The energy value of carrots is 29-31 kilocalories per 100 g of product.

Another nutrient in carrots that is unfairly under-reported is vitamin E, the so-called muscle vitamin. It contributes to the efficient use of oxygen by the entire musculature.

1. The ancient Greeks called carrots philtron, or "magic of love." They believed that carrots help you fall in love faster.
2. Some nations have a tradition of giving carrots to the bride so that she can be a good host in the kitchen.
3. Carrots are 87% water.
4. If there are too many carrots, the skin will turn yellowish-orange, especially the elbows and heels. This phenomenon is called Carotenemia. Fortunately, this disappears when a person starts eating less carrots.
5. By eating two medium-sized carrots a day, a person can lower blood cholesterol levels by 20%.
6. 9 carrots have as much calcium as a glass of milk.
7. Three medium-sized carrots provide the energy needed to walk 5 km.
8. The longest carrot in the world is 5.839 meters. She was raised in the UK in 1996. In turn, the largest vegetable was grown in Alaska (USA) in 1998, the weight of carrots was 8.6 kilograms.
9. Recently, one of the awards of the International Fair of Horticultural Products "Fruit Logistica" was received by a light snack originally from Italy Carrot Fetuccini - delicious and crispy carrots cut into ribbons.
10. Carrots are the first vegetable to be canned for wholesale.
11. Holtville, California calls itself the "Carrot Capital of the World" and hosts a Carrot Festival every year.
12. Breeders breed different varieties for different uses. For example, varieties grown by Vilmorin, Bolero F1 and Maestro F1 are the best suited for making juices - from these varieties you can get especially a lot of juice with good taste. Most of the varieties are bred so that the root crops are easy to wash, they have a particularly smooth surface. Even a special variety for cooking pilaf has been bred - “Kazan F1” (cauldrons in some Asian countries are called a cauldron for cooking pilaf) - shavings of this carrot do not change the traditional color of the dish.

It's one thing when carrots grow horned and clumsy - it's our fault, they didn't feed, they didn't water. But when in the fall you see that the root crop has grown not orange, but yellow or white, you can in good conscience blame the manufacturer or the wild carrots with which your cultivated one “mated”.

So why are carrots yellow (white) and not orange?

-Manufacturer's fault. In pursuit of cost reduction, many producers begin to "hack": they do not regularly renew mother liquors, but grow vegetables for seeds using old, degenerate varieties. From these seeds you will get white carrots- not juicy and not tasty, no matter how diligently you perform agricultural practices.

Carrots similar to wild ones grow from low-quality seeds. You can distinguish it from a good one by tops. A degenerate carrot has leaves with fluff, a more saturated green color than a cultivated one, and a rosette of leaves is almost horizontal. It is necessary to discard such root crops immediately - they will be woody, unsweetened, pale, and besides, they can pollinate varietal specimens of carrots.

On the left - sowing carrots, on the right - wild

-Seed collection from F1 hybrids . If you collect seeds from carrots (and any other vegetable), the packaging of which indicated F1, that is, a first-generation hybrid, will grow from them second-generation hybrids - F2. Such carrots lose their varietal, or rather hybrid, qualities, and become more like their wild sisters. And wild carrots are white, bitter and not juicy.

-Cross-pollination with wild carrots. Daucus carota, or common carrot, grows everywhere in the southern regions of the European part of Russia, as well as in Ukraine and Belarus. Its fruits have a burning spicy taste, in appearance they are yellow or white. Sowing carrots growing in our gardens are a subspecies of wild carrots. That is, they are close relatives, and are easily cross-pollinated by insects at a distance of 0.8-2 km, depending on the area. This is another answer to the question why carrots are white and not orange. When growing carrots for seed, make sure that the same carrot is not growing nearby, or prepare for the seeds to be a surprise. Also, do not plant several varieties at once, otherwise they will cross-pollinate with each other.

However, such root crops can also be used - as a spice in marinades, canned food, as well as in medicine - as a diuretic, anthelmintic, in the treatment of kidney stones.

wild carrot

- Top dressing. If not all carrots are pale, but only with carrot core white and tough, most likely, we are dealing with a "skew" in mineral substances. In particular, with an excess of nitrogen and a lack of potassium and phosphorus. Typically, these root crops have lush greenery, and the flesh is dry and bitter. To remedy the situation, it is necessary to exclude nitrogen and organic top dressings (urea, mullein, bird droppings, manure) and fertilize with ash or phosphorus-potassium fertilizers.

Thus, if the carrots have grown yellow or white, this is an occasion to think about the quality of the seeds. Invest in reputable seed companies and be careful when harvesting carrot seeds. Have a good harvest!

Kira Stoletova

Carrots are one of the most common vegetables. It has a bright and attractive appearance. Orange carrots did not acquire this color immediately. Some of its species have a different color.

vegetable ancestors

Cultural varieties of carrots originally existed 2: Eastern and Asian. The anthocyanin pigment gave them a purple hue, and in large quantities even black. Now this variety is found in Afghanistan, the Himalayas, Iran, India, Russia. Yellow carrots grow there, more resilient and tart. The leaves of the oriental plant are pubescent and have a silver tint.

Violet root crops began to be cultivated around the 10th century. In the 13th century it appeared in the countries of the Mediterranean, in the 15th century it appeared in China. In Asia, purple and yellow varieties are grown to this day, but they are not as popular as their orange cousin.

In ancient times, there was no single name for this vegetable, so white varieties were often confused with parsnips. It was later given a separate name to separate it from related root crops.

The confusion continued until the Middle Ages, when purple and yellow species were reintroduced to European countries. Today, carrots are officially considered a valuable plant, and all varieties, from white to black, are subject to the Linnaean classification, eaten out in the 18th century.

Selection work

The first experiment on a root crop was carried out by Dutch scientists in the 18th century. The purpose of the selection was to make carrots produce larger and juicier fruits. During the events, the vegetable lost some of the essential oils, but acquired a lot of other useful properties.

Up to this point, history has known red, yellow, purple, white varieties, but not orange. According to one version, the vegetable owes its accustomed color to Orange Prince William, allegedly as an expression of gratitude for the independence of Holland during the war with Spain.

According to another hypothesis, the orange color of the root crop was due to the crossing of the red variety with the yellow one. It happened in the XVIII century, when the vegetable was brought to the Netherlands from Iran. It is the orange blossom that is considered the symbol of the Dutch state.

Peter I brought carrots to Russia in the form in which we know them along with other vegetables. For a long time, the root crop was used only as a remedy for the treatment of diseases. Only after 2 centuries, carrots began to be widely eaten.

From the 70s of the twentieth century to the present day, breeders continue to work on the quality of carrots, improving its usefulness. The percentage of carotene in it almost doubled: by the 20th century, carrots had become the champion in its content.

Color shaping

Carrots are colored orange, thanks to the carotenoid pigment, a natural dye. It accumulates thanks to the DCAR_03255 gene. Beta-carotene is found in small amounts in tomatoes and broccoli. Splitting into small particles, the dye is converted into vitamin A. Excessive consumption of a vegetable leads to carotenemia: a person's skin becomes orange from an excess of pigment in the blood.

Yellow and white colors are also rare. These varieties were obtained by crossing oriental varieties with wild Mediterranean ones.

Orange carrots, like white ones, are a hybrid of oriental white varieties. The color of the vegetable depends on the content of carotenoid pigments.

• carotene A and B affect the orange and yellow color of carrots, and the percentage of beta-carotene can be more than 50%;
• lycopene and xanthophyll give the root a red color;
• the lower the content of carotene in a carrot, the lighter it looks;
• the percentage of anthocyanins in a vegetable is responsible for its light purple or black color, and also gives it an antioxidant function.

Composition and useful properties

Carotene, which gives carrots an orange color, is contained in the product in large quantities: 9-10 mg per 100 g. The vegetable also contains vitamins C, E, group B, carbohydrates, in particular glucose, minerals: calcium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, sulfur is a valuable protein. The energy value of carrots is 28-31 kcal / 100 g.

Simple carrots are a truly valuable product for the human body. Eating it daily, a person improves the condition of the skin, hair, nails, and provides prevention of visual acuity.

The root crop is able to regulate the level of cholesterol in the blood and blood pressure. The fiber contained in orange and yellow carrots has a beneficial effect on bowel function.

Differences between orange and purple

If carrots of the familiar orange color are a storehouse of beta-carotene, then anthocyanin dominates in the composition of its purple or blue-black relative. This pigment, affecting the color, saturates the plant with many useful properties. Such carrots have an antioxidant effect on the body, anti-inflammatory, strengthens the immune system, lowers cholesterol and improves the functioning of blood vessels.

WHAT COLOR CARROT?

Why are carrots orange?

YELLOW CARROT EXCEEDED OUR EXPECTATIONS!

Conclusion

Orange carrots, familiar to modern man, are a storehouse of vitamins and minerals necessary for the full functioning of the body. This is facilitated by the plant pigment carotenoid, which colors the root crop in a bright red color.

Carrots are one of the most important root crops for humans grown in temperate regions. The vegetable cultivated today was obtained from wild varieties whose roots were anything but orange. According to the research of scientists, carrots were originally purple or yellow.

It is difficult to judge the origin and evolution of the existing 80 types of cultivated carrots today. But archaeologists find carrot seeds during excavations along the entire Mediterranean coast, in North Africa, in the Asian region and European countries with a temperate climate.

Wild species, most likely, initially for humans were not a source of juicy root crops, but greenery. Perhaps carrots were used and how.

At the same time, in Iran and Europe, the cultural layers, where evidence of the growth of carrots is found, are about 5 thousand years old. The fossil pollen of plants of the Apiaceae family, belonging to the Eocene period, has an age of 55 to 34 million years, which indicates the antiquity of the genus.

Ancestors of modern carrot varieties

Today, the existence of two original types of cultivated carrots has been confirmed. Oriental or Asian carrots historically, due to the pigment anthocyanin, have a purple color. And in some, the coloring is so intense that they began to talk about black carrots.

The pinnate leaves of the oriental type are silvery in color and visibly hairy. Such carrots are most widespread in Afghanistan, in the Himalayas and the Hindu Kush mountains, and in Iran, India and some regions of Russia. In the same territories, yellow carrots are also found, which in the wild are tougher than dark-colored ones and have a pronounced pungent taste.

The cultivation of purple carrots began, probably, in the 10th century. Three centuries later, purple root crops appeared in the Mediterranean, and a little later they began to be grown in China and Japan. Eastern yellow and purple carrots are still grown in Asia today, used to make a strong alcoholic drink, but are inferior in popularity and distribution to Western varieties with orange roots.

The modern Western type of carrot is colored by carotene, so the roots can be red, orange, yellow, or almost white.

Most likely, such varieties were the result of hybridization and crossing of plants of the oriental type with wild subspecies of the Mediterranean yellow carrot. Root crops consumed by Europeans until the 17th century were thin, highly branched and not at all juicy.

The history of carrots in ancient times

Archaeologically confirmed evidence of the consumption of wild carrots has been found at ancient human sites in Switzerland.

Temple paintings in Egyptian Luxor dating back to the second millennium BC depict purple root vegetables. And in the papyri found in one of the burials of the pharaoh, it is said about the treatment with carrot seeds or a plant similar to it. But neither archaeologists nor paleobotanists have been able to confirm the assumptions of Egyptologists about the distribution of purple carrots in the Nile Valley. Perhaps the ancient Egyptians were familiar with other members of the Apiaceae family, such as anise, or coriander.

Fossilized carrot seeds, at least five thousand years old, have been found in the highlands of Iran and Afghanistan.

Many cultivars of various colors have been found in Asia, and there is evidence of the use of wild carrots during the Hellenic period in Greece. Basically, carrot seeds and its rhizomes were used for medicinal purposes. For example, in the Ardennes during the time of Ancient Rome, carrots served as an aphrodisiac, and the Pontic king Mithridates VI believed that carrots could neutralize poisons.

Dioscorides, who served as a doctor in the Roman army, described and sketched more than 600 species of medicinal plants during his campaigns in De Materia Medica. A Byzantine edition of a work dating from 512 shows the reader the appearance of an orange carrot.

The documented history of the carrot and its introduction into cultivation

White Carrot Mystery and Classification Issues

In ancient Rome and Greece, carrots were called differently, which led to conflicting interpretations. In particular, under the name Pastinaca, both almost white carrots and light-colored roots of parsnips, which were extremely popular at that time, could be hidden.

Giving carrots the name Daucus, separating it from related species, was suggested by Galen. This happened in the second century AD. In the same years, the Roman scientist Athenaeus proposed the name Carota, and the root crop is also referred to in the culinary book Apicius Czclius, dating back to 230.

However, with the fall of Rome, the mention of carrots from European written sources completely disappears. And the confusion in the identification of plants close in appearance and kinship continued until the Middle Ages, until purple and yellow root crops were again brought to Europe from Asia.

Charlemagne issued a decree on the full reverence of carrots and recognition of its most valuable plant, and thanks to the openwork leaves and umbrella inflorescences in history, carrots became known as "Queen Anne's lace."

Today, the names of all varieties, from white root crops to black carrots, are subject to the classification of Linnaeus, developed by him in 1753.

Beginning of carrot breeding

Purposeful selection of the species began relatively recently. The description of the first cultivated variety dates back to 1721 and was made by Dutch botanists. Getting the carrots to produce sweeter and larger rhizomes was easy. In order for the root crop to become noticeably straighter, sweeter and juicier, the plant needed only good care and cultivation of several generations in favorable conditions.

Historians were surprised that less than three centuries passed from the moment yellow and red carrots appeared in the Netherlands to their distribution as a vegetable species, as if the plant itself wanted to be cultivated.

The most famous varieties, Nantes and Chantan, mankind owes to the French ascetic gardener Louis de Vilmorin, who in the 19th century laid the foundations of modern crop production and in 1856 published a description of the varieties that are still in demand today.

Carrot color development

Oriental yellow varieties became the basis for obtaining both orange and white carrots. This conclusion, after analyzing the gene pool of plants, was made by geneticists, quite recently, but both yellow and red carrots continue to be cultivated in the world. A variety of purple carrots with a particularly intense dark color was called black. So what is the reason for such a variety of colors?

The color of the carrot root is the result of the action of various pigments related to carotenoids.

In the process of selection, carrots have become larger and juicier. She has lost some of the essential oils, but has gained other health benefits, depending on both the color and its intensity.

A tricky way for fruitful carrots - video