Root With A Poisonous Juice


by davidbunch - Date: 2010-07-17 - Word Count: 468 Share This!

While the potato is of great importance in the United States, it is in northern and central Europe that it is often the chief starchy food of the common people. In addition to its use as food for man and beast, the manufacture of industrial alcohol and of starch is of much importance. Normally, the greatest total and per acre yield is in Germany, Poland and Russia ranking next in production and utilization of potatoes. Cassava, the root of several species of Manihot has been cultivated since prehistoric times in the humid tropical lowlands of Brazil, the Guianas, and similar regions in South America. Even today it is the chief bread food of the inhabitants of those same regions.

Manihot utillissima has a poisonous juice, which must be removed before the root is safe for human food. The large fleshy roots are rich in starch and may be cooked and eaten in various ways. One of the commonest is the preparation of tapioca. Cassava spread rapidly, especially to regions where neither rice nor corn grow well. Slave traders carried it from Brazil to the west coast of Africa, where it became the main food of Angola. It went with Aztec soldiers to the Philippines, and spread rapidly over the island world. It is now grown in all warm countries.

In Queensland, Australia, Java, and the Philippines, great plantations are devoted to the culture of cassava for making starch, which is used in various industries. Many people confuse a quite different thing arrowroot-with tapioca. Arrowroot belongs to a different family, and is cultivated for its fleshy rootstocks, rich in starch. It is probably a native of Brazil, and was cultivated in prehistoric time in both Brazil and the West Indies. At an early date it was carried to almost all warm countries, becoming generally naturalized and spontaneous. Arrowroot is grown commercially in South Africa, Queensland, Bermuda, the East Indies, India, and Fiji. The starch is used in making crackers, wafers, and cakes, and in prepared foods for infants and invalids.

The sweet potato, Ipomoea batatas, a member of the morning glory family, is the original potato, but by a curious twist its name was applied to the very different plant that we know as the common potato. The sweet potato is a native of the American tropics unknown in a wild state. This indicates its cultivation since remote times. In pre-Columbian times it was an important crop in the West Indies, Yucatan, Honduras, tropical Mexico, and Peru, and perhaps other parts of tropical America. The kamotl, or sweet potato, went with the Aztecs to the Philippines, where it became the kamotl of the Filipinos, and spread rapidly all over the islands, and soon it was cultivated by many tribes that had never seen a white man or an Aztec.

Related Tags: sweet potato, manihot utillissima, cassava, arrowroot, chief starchy food, startch food

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