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Yuca/Cassava/Manioc/Mandioca (Manihot Esculenta)

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Bianca
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« on: October 07, 2008, 08:43:38 am »




               

               Manihot Esculenta









                                                   YUCA/CASSAVA/MANIOC/MANDIOCA





The cassava, yuca, manioc, or mandioca (Manihot esculenta) is a woody shrub of the Euphorbiaceae (spurge family) native to South America that is extensively cultivated as an annual crop in tropical and subtropical regions for its edible starchy tuberous root, a major source of carbohydrates.

It is the third largest source of carbohydrates for human food in the world, with Africa its largest center
of production.

The flour made of the roots is called tapioca.
« Last Edit: October 07, 2008, 08:49:27 am by Bianca » Report Spam   Logged

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Bianca
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« Reply #1 on: October 07, 2008, 08:51:13 am »

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« Reply #2 on: October 07, 2008, 08:55:02 am »










                                                       T H E   R O O T





The root is long and tapered, with a firm homogeneous flesh encased in a detachable rind, about
1 mm thick, rough and brown on the outside, just like a potato. Commercial varieties can be
5 to 10 cm in diameter at the top, and 50 to 80 cm long.

A woody cordon runs along the root's axis.

The flesh can be chalk-white or yellowish.

The plant gives the highest yield of food energy per cultivated area per day among crop plants,
except possibly for sugarcane. 

Roots are very rich in starch, and contain significant amounts of



calcium (50 mg/100g),

phosphorus (40 mg/100g) and

vitamin C (25 mg/100g).



However, they are poor in protein and other nutrients.

In contrast, the leaves are a good source of protein if supplemented with the amino acid methionine despite containing cyanide.
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« Reply #3 on: October 07, 2008, 08:56:34 am »







This bubble map shows the global distribution of Manihot esculenta output in 2005 as a percentage of
the top producer (Nigeria - 41,565,000 tonnes).

This map is consistent with incomplete set of data too as long as the top producer is known.

It resolves the accessibility issues faced by colour-coded maps that may not be properly rendered in old computer screens.



Data was extracted on 9th June 2007 from

http://faostat.fao.org/site/336/DesktopDefault.aspx?PageID=336



Based on Image:BlankMap-World.png
« Last Edit: October 07, 2008, 08:59:10 am by Bianca » Report Spam   Logged

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« Reply #4 on: October 07, 2008, 09:00:46 am »


               








Wild populations of M. esculenta subspecies flabellifolia, shown to be the progenitor of domesticated cassava, are centered in west-central Brazil where it was likely first domesticated no more than
10,000 years BP.

By 6,600 BC, manioc pollen appears in the Gulf of Mexico lowlands, at the San Andres archaeological
site.[The oldest direct evidence of cassava cultivation comes from a 1,400 year old Maya site, Joya
de Ceren, in El Salvador, although the species Manihot esculenta likely originated further south in
Brazil and Paraguay.

With its high food potential, it had become a staple food of the native populations of northern South America, southern Mesoamerica, and the West Indies by the time of the Spanish conquest, and its cultivation was continued by the colonial Portuguese and Spanish.

Forms of the modern domesticated species can be found growing in the wild in the south of Brazil.
While there are several wild Manihot species, all varieties of M. esculenta are cultigens.

World production of cassava root was estimated to be 184 million tonnes in 2002, the majority of production is in Africa where 99.1 million tonnes were grown, 51.5 million tonnes were grown in Asia
and 33.2 million tonnes in Latin America and the Caribbean. However, based on the statistics from
the FAO of the United Nations, Thailand is the largest exporting country of Dried Cassava with a total
of 77% of world export in 2005. The second largest exporting country is Vietnam, with 13.6%, followed by Indonesia (5.8%) and Costa Rica (2.1%).

In many places in the Americas, yuca was the staple food. This translated into many images of yuca being used in pre-Colombian art.





The Moche people often depicted
yuca in their ceramics.
« Last Edit: October 07, 2008, 09:06:50 am by Bianca » Report Spam   Logged

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« Reply #5 on: October 07, 2008, 09:08:51 am »



            








Cassava is harvested by hand by raising the lower part of stem and pulling the roots out of the
ground, then removing them from the base of the plant .

The upper parts of the stems with the leaves are plucked off before harvest.

Cassava is propagated by cutting the stem into sections of approximately 30 cm (1 foot), these
being planted prior to the wet season.
« Last Edit: October 07, 2008, 09:30:55 am by Bianca » Report Spam   Logged

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« Reply #6 on: October 07, 2008, 09:14:32 am »





               









The leaves cannot be consumed raw since they contain free and bound cyanogenic glucosides.
These are converted to cyanide in the presence of linamarase, a naturally occurring enzyme in
cassava.

The roots, however, are eaten raw everywhere in Africa.

Varieties are often categorized as either "sweet" or "bitter", signifying the absence or presence
of
toxic levels of cyanogenic glucosides.

The so-called "sweet" (actually "not bitter") cultivars can produce as little as 20 milligrams of
cyanide (CN) per kilogram of fresh roots, while "bitter" ones may produce more than 50 times as
much (1 g/kg).

Cassavas grown during drought are especially high in these toxins. One dose of pure cassava cyanogenic glucoside (40mg) is sufficient to kill a cow.

Societies which traditionally eat cassava generally understand that soaking and/or cooking is
necessary to avoid getting sick.[citation needed] However, problems do occur - konzo (also called mantakassa) is a paralytic neurological disease associated with several weeks of almost exclusive consumption of insufficiently processed bitter cassava.

Dr Jasson Ospina, an Australian plant chemist, has developed a simple method to reduce the cyanide content of cassava flour.  The method involves mixing the flour with water into a thick paste and
then letting it stand in the shade for five hours in a thin layer spread over a basket, allowing an
enzyme in the flour to break down the cyanide compound. The cyanide compound produces hydrogen cyanide gas, which escapes into the atmosphere, reducing the amount of poison by up to five-sixths and making the flour safe for consumption the same evening. This method is currently being promoted
in rural African communities that are dependent on cassava.

For some smaller-rooted "sweet" varieties, cooking is sufficient to eliminate all toxicity. The larger-rooted "bitter" varieties used for production of flour or starch must be processed to remove the cyanogenic glucosides.

The large roots are peeled and then ground into flour, which is then soaked in water, squeezed dry several times, and toasted. The starch grains that float to the surface during the soaking process
are also used in cooking. 

The flour is used throughout the Caribbean.

The traditional method used in West Africa is to peel the roots and put them into water for 3 days
to ferment. The roots then are dried or cooked.

In Nigeria and several other west African countries, including Ghana, Benin, Togo, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso, they are usually grated and lightly fried in palm oil to preserve them. The result is a foodstuff called 'Gari'.

Fermentation is also used in other places such as Indonesia.

The reliance on cassava as a food source and the resulting exposure to the goitrogenic effects of thiocyanate has been responsible for the endemic goitres seen in the Akoko area of southwestern
Nigeria.
« Last Edit: October 07, 2008, 09:26:29 am by Bianca » Report Spam   Logged

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« Reply #7 on: October 07, 2008, 09:15:41 am »





             









The bitter variety of Manihot root is used to treat diarrhea and malaria.

The leaves are used to treat hypertension, headache, and pain.

Cubans commonly use cassava to treat irritable bowel syndrome, the paste is eaten in excess
during treatment.





Cooked in various ways, cassava is used in a variety of dishes.

The soft-boiled root has a delicate flavor and can replace boiled potatoes in many uses: as an accompaniment for meat dishes, or made into purées, dumplings, soups, stews, gravies, etc..

Deep fried (after boiling or steaming), it can replace fried potatoes, with a distinctive flavor.

Tapioca and foufou are made from the starchy cassava root flour. Tapioca is an essentially flavourless starchy ingredient, or fecula, produced from treated and dried cassava (manioc) root and used in cooking.
It is similar to sago and is commonly used to make a milky pudding similar to rice pudding.

Cassava flour, also called tapioca flour or tapioca starch, can also replace wheat flour, and is so-used
by some people with wheat allergies, such as coeliac disease. Boba tapioca pearls are made from cassava root. It is also used in cereals for which several tribes in South America have used it extensively. It is also used in making cassava cake, a popular pastry.

The juice of the bitter cassava, boiled to the consistence of thick syrup and flavored with spices, is called Cassareep. It is used as a basis for various sauces and as a culinary flavoring, principally in tropical countries. It is exported chiefly from Guyana.

The leaves can be pounded to a fine chaff and cooked as a palaver sauce in Sierra Leone, usually with
palm oil but vegetable oil can also be used. Palaver sauces contain meat and fish as well. It is necessary
to wash the leaf chaff several times to remove the bitterness.

In many countries, significant research has begun to evaluate the use of cassava as an ethanol biofuel.

In China, dried tapioca are used among other industrial applications as raw material for the production of consumable alcohol and emerging non-grain feedstock of ethanol fuel, which is a form of renewable energy to substitute petrol (gasoline).

Under the Development Plan for Renewable Energy in the 11th Five-Year Plan in China, the target is to increase the application of ethanol fuel by non-grain feedstock to 2 million tonnes, and that of bio-diesel
to 200 thousand tonnes by 2010. This will be equivalent to a substitute of 10 million tonnes of petroleum.
As a result, cassava (tapioca) chips have gradually become a major source for ethanol production



FROM

wikipedia.org
« Last Edit: October 07, 2008, 09:21:58 am by Bianca » Report Spam   Logged

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« Reply #8 on: October 20, 2008, 12:36:46 pm »

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