2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-02 16:12
Not many people have heard of the taro vegetable, also known as taro. This amazing plant grows in countries with a hot climate. Few of us know what taro is - a fruit or a vegetable? It is very popular among the inhabitants of Africa and Asia, who prepare various dishes from it. The taro vegetable and its features will be discussed in this review.
General Description
What is a taro vegetable? This is a fairly popular plant in Africa and Southeast Asia, which is eaten. It is also called "ancient taro" or "edible taro". This is a perennial herbaceous plant belonging to the genus Colocasia.
The taro vegetable has a fibrous root system. As it grows underground, it forms a rather large tuber, which has a diameter of 5 to 8.5 cm and a mass of up to 4.5 kg. There are many buds on the roots, some of them begin to germinate, forming new, secondary, but small tubers.
The flesh of taro vegetable tubers, depending on the variety, may have yellow,cream, pink, red or orange.
Botanical characteristic
The plant has large arrow-shaped or heart-shaped leaves. Growing, they reach a height of 1 m, and a width of up to 50 cm. The leaves form a basal rosette on petioles, which have a long grooved shape. These petioles usually reach a length of about two meters.
From the apical bud on the tuber, as the plant grows, a flower-bearing shoot develops. The inflorescence has an ear with a yellow-green "veil". Its upper flowers are male, the lower ones are female, and the middle ones are rudimentary, sterile. The fruits are small red berries with underdeveloped seeds.
Distribution history
The taro plant is also called the Chinese dalo potato, or satoimo in Japanese, which means village potato. It is believed that taro first appeared in India and then spread eastward from Burma, China, and then straight south all the way to Indonesia.
After that, he went to Japan, Polynesia, Melanesia and even Hawaii. In the Middle Ages, it continued to spread in Africa and the Caribbean. The taro vegetable thrives in subtropical and tropical regions.
Today it is cultivated in the countries of North and West Africa, India and China. In most of the Pacific Islands and in Papua (New Guinea), the tubers of this plant are a staple food.
Composition andnutritional value
Taro vegetable has a taste similar to potatoes, but with hints of vanilla. It contains a large number of useful substances for humans. 100 grams of tubers contain:
- vitamin B6 – 0.293mg;
- vitamin E - 2.5mg;
- carbs - 27.5mg;
- manganese - 0.40 mg;
- copper - 0.18 mg;
- potassium - 0.615 mg.
It also contains amino acids:
- tryptophan - 0.025 mg;
- leucine - 0.115 mg;
- isoleucine - 0.055 mg;
- lysine - 0.07 mg;
- threonine - 0.072 mg.
Taro has a rather unusual taste for Europeans. The combination of sweet vanilla and potato makes for an off-the-wall taste. It also has nutty and even chestnut notes. However, people have created a variety of dishes with many spices that change this dish beyond recognition.
Calorie content and recommendations
Calorie taro is 116 kcal per 100 grams of vegetable. In addition to the rich nutritional and vitamin value, it has other advantages. Doctors recommend eating taro as a prophylactic against a number of diseases, for example:
- to prevent cancer;
- for rheumatoid arthritis;
- to lower blood pressure;
- to improve the functioning of the digestive and immune systems.
And it is also recommended for use to stimulate the work of the heart muscle, forimprove vision and prevent diabetes.
Tubers
The taro vegetable is fleshy and massive. It is a starchy fruit called a corm. Vegetables are quite different from each other in shape and size. They are mostly round or cylindrical oblong, reaching a length of up to 35 cm and having a diameter of about 15 cm. Quite often, the tubers surround small secondary corms or shoots.
Taro tubers consist of a core, "bark" and skin. The latter has a rough and fibrous texture of brown color. It is covered with peculiar ringlets of leaf scars.
Fruit color varies by variety. It can be white, purple, pinkish or yellow. One bush of the plant produces several fruits weighing an average of about 1 kg, but there may be a crop with tubers weighing up to 3.5 kg.
Use
Taro vegetable corms are very rich in mucus, which is why they are used in pulp and paper production, as well as in the manufacture of tablets. Locals often make taro mash, which tastes sweet and sour. Livestock (pigs, sheep, cows, goats) are fed with tubers of wild varieties of taro. Cooked tubers can be compared to corn in terms of calories, which is a good source of energy for livestock.
Taro vegetable petioles and leaves are used in the manufacture of various dyes. This plant is often used in landscape design when decorating house adjoining areas. The fiber thatobtained from fruits, serves as a material for wickerwork. In the photo of the taro plant, you can see its unusual and peculiar beauty.
Juice of leaves and petioles has a hemostatic and stimulating effect on the human body. Tuber juice is used as a laxative, analgesic and sedative. It is also used as an antidote for the bites of snakes, wasps, bees and other insects.
Here is such an unusual vegetable in all respects. The taro plant is unique both in its taste and characteristics and in its various uses.
Recommended:
E100 dye: general characteristics and useful properties
Almost every product contains some kind of chemical. Usually such components are called "shocks". But not all of them are unhe althy. For example, dye E100 is the most natural spice called turmeric (curcumin). It is a natural substance, and therefore it can be safely called safe for he alth. In the article, we will consider possible contraindications, and also answer the question: what does it bring to our body - benefit or harm?
Vegetable juice: recipes, useful and harmful properties
What is freshly squeezed vegetable juice? Why is he good? You will find answers to these and other questions in the article. In the summer heat, it is pleasant to drink a glass of freshly squeezed juice diluted with mineral water. But is such a drink useful, can it improve well-being and quench thirst? Consider the information on vegetable freshly squeezed juices below
How is feijoa useful and for what diseases? Feijoa fruit: useful properties, contraindications, photos and recipes. Feijoa jam: useful properties
When berries similar to gooseberries appeared on store shelves a few years ago, people hesitated to buy them for a long time. But, having figured it out and tried it once, they began to consider them an ordinary fruit, the name of which is feijoa. Over time, it became known that feijoa is useful
Ginger: useful properties and contraindications for women. Pickled ginger: useful properties
Each country has its own tradition of using ginger. So, the horned root in Asia, considered the birthplace of the plant, is a universal remedy for many diseases. In China and India, eating ginger is believed to promote a long and he althy life
Dates: useful properties and contraindications. Useful properties of dried dates
Dates are not only an oriental sweetness, but also a storehouse of vitamins. They are rich in nutrients and are also a natural cure for many ailments
