Mystery Of Onions | Onion History

MYSTERY OF ONIONS

When we go towards history we find that man has always been inspired by the wonders of nature. He began to worship all the things that benefited him or gave harm to him in anyway but according to Doctor Abdu-Salam scientific “knowledge is the common heritage of mankind" . He has always been curioust know the secrets of nature and remained in search of the truth and reality. He observes various phenomena and tries to find their answers by logical Reasoning. This is science. Superstitious aspects are actually the observations of humans without reasoning and experiments. As it’s true or not? Think

Onion plant description

                                       Onion plant is biennial (live for two growing seasons. During the first growing season they develop leaves on a short stem and store up food in their tap root. The leaves die away at the end of this season during the following season the stored food is utilized for the production of flowers and fruits after which the plants die)

Herbaceous plant

                Onion plant is a herb (have soft stem and small in size)

Plant height

               Onion plants can reach a height of 50 cm

Leaves

               The onion plant has a fan of hollow, bluish green leaves.

Flower

               The onion plant produces pink to white flowers clustered on stalks called umberels.

Bulb

                        The onion bulb is a specialized underground shoot. The stem or axis is reduced to a short broadly conical disc which gives off adventitious roots from it under surface. Onion bulbs are Tunicated bulbs. In these bulbs the bases of the foliage leaves store up food and become thick and fleshy. The inner fleshy leaf bases completely enclose one another in a concentric manner while the outermost leaf bases which do not contain stored food dry up to form a membranous covering or Tunica. The Tunica protects the bulb against drying up and mechanical injuries. In the bulb of onion the outer most protective scales are white or purple in color.

    Largest onion bulb on record

                Largest onion bulb on record is weighed over 10 pounds.

Types of onion

                           Onions are divided into three groups these are Yellow, Red and white onions.

Healthiest type onion

                       Red onions are the healthiest because of higher antioxidant properties.

Seed description /Onion seed and kalongi see 

People often confused about the seeds of onions and considered the Kalongi seeds as onion seeds but it’s not true. Although Kalongi( Nigella) is also known as black onions but it is a different plant from onion. Both onions and Kalongi belong to different families.

                 Botanical name of onion is “ Allium cepa”   it belongs to family Lilaceae while Kalongi is” Nigella sativa” it belongs to family Ranunculaceae. Both seeds can be identified by their taste (Kalongi taste is like cumin while onion seeds taste like onions) Kalongi seeds are triangular in shape and have smooth oily surface while onion seeds are not triangular and have rough surface.

Plantation, propagation and germination of onions and their requirements

Climate

                 Onions are hardy cool season vegetable growing well in areas with cool spring weather and drier hotter summer weather.

Temperature effects on onions

               Temperature for seed germination ranges from 20 to 25 c. Early growth stages before bulb form require 13 to 20 c.  Bulb formation takes place at 16 to 25 c. At low temperature bulbs form slowly and if the temperature is very low no bulbing takes place. At low temperature onions are more inclined to bolt.

Photoperiodic effect (day length) on onions

                   Onion varieties are classified into three groups according to photoperiodism. On the basis of minimum day length needed to stimulate bulb development onion varieties are,

Short day type

                   Require 10 to 12 hours day light to form bulb adapted to trophics.

Intermediate day type

                   Require 13 to14 hours day length to initiate bulb development and adapted to the subtropics.

ONION NAMES IN DIFFERENT LANGUAGES

1.    Onion English Name : Onion

2.    Onion Urdu Name    : Piyaz

3.    Onion Bengali Name : Pyanj

4.    Onion Punjabi Name : Ganda

5.    Onion Saraiki Name : Wasal

6.    Onion Telugu Name : Nirulli

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF ONION  , ONION’s HISTORY

In Egypt, onions can be traced back to 3500BC.  Ancient Egyptians Worshiped the onions it means people recognized onion benefits and harms that time but they did not know the main cause of these effects of onions.

Onion as strength  boasting  tonic  for Soldier

          In ancient time onion extract was used as strength tonic. Soldiers and athletes ate onion and apply onion juice on their bodies to increase their strength and speed of movement.

 First Cultivation of onion in the world

            There are different opinions about it but more people relied that onion was cultivated firstly in Central Asia but other suggested that they were domesticated in Iran and Westerner regions of India and Pakistan.  Officially , Carl Linnaeus in 1753 Ad reported onion. Today  China cultivated onion in large scale. Other onion producing countries are USA and India. In Libya, onion are consumed highly .

USES of Onion , Onion Effects

          To check the benefits and harms of any thing it is most important to recognize its ingredients or chemical because all its effects will be due to its composition. When we go to buy something we should check the ingredients because we know that there is number of chemicals or compound that cause allergy in our body. Therefore, to understand onion effects we ckeck it chemical composition which is the main cause of its benefits and harms.

Chemical Composition of  Onions

          Sulphur compounds are the main chemicals in onion. These are firstly  Identified by lemmler as Allyl Propyl Disulphide and Allyl Propyl Trisulphide. Theses are the volatile sulphur compounds the other chemicals in onion are Cyclloallin , Quercetin and Oleanolic acid. The onion bulb also contain Flavonoids,  Thiosulphinate and Sterols. Most of the onion properties are due to these sulphur compounds.

Nutritional facts of Onion

          Onion bulbs are rich in vitamin C and also contain Protein, Carbohydrate, Clcium, Iron and vitamin B.

100 gram onion contains

• ·       Calories 40
• ·       Sodium 4mg
• ·       Potassium 146mg
• ·       Total carbohydrates  9g
• ·       Dietary fiber  1.7g
• ·       Sugar 4.2g
• ·       Protein 1.1g
• ·       Vitamin C    12%
• ·       Calcium 2%
• ·       Iron    1%
• ·       Vitamin B6 5%
• ·       Magnesium 2%
• ·       Vitamin D and Vitamin A are absent
• ·       %daily values are based on 2 calorie diet

To Be Continued Myster of Onion Part2

Mystery Of Onions | Onion History in Urdu
Mystery Of Onions Part III