Edible Alliums

Allium crops include more than 30 species, many of which (for e.g. onions, shallots, garlic, leeks, bunching onions, and chives) are of economic importance. Bulb onions rank second only to tomatoes in terms of global production. Alliums are farmed and harvested in a range of climatic conditions worldwide, forming important parts of local diets. This book provides a comprehensive review of major and minor Allium crops from scientific and horticultural perspectives. It broadly covers modern biology (including genetics and breeding), propagation, production, processing, and nutritional and health benefits. This is an essential resource for scholars, researchers and students in plant science and agriculture, in addition to molecular biologists, plant breeders, agronomists, consultants, and extension specialists.

Relates the production and utilization of onions and other vegetable allium crops to the many aspects of plant science underpinning their production and storage technologies. This book covers species and crop types, plant structure, genetics and breeding, physiology of growth and development as well as pests and diseases.

This fully revised, expanded and updated edition of the successful text, Onions and Other Vegetable Alliums, relates the production and utilization of these familiar and important vegetable crops to the many aspects of plant science underpinning their production and storage technologies. Chapters cover species and crop types, plant structure, genetics and breeding, physiology of growth and development as well as pests and diseases, production agronomy, storage after harvest and the biochemistry of flavour, storage carbohydrates and colour and how this relates to nutritional and health benefits. From this wide perspective it is possible to see many examples where underlying scientific knowledge illuminates, explains and can improve agronomic practice. The reader will get an insight into how molecular methods are revolutionizing the study of taxonomy, genetics, pathology and physiology and how these methods are being applied in the breeding of improved crops.

A colorful, encyclopedic work on the garlic family detailing the fascinating history of mankind's use of the allium.

The Alliums are some of the most ancient cultivated crops and include onions, garlic, leeks and other related plants. This book provides an up-to-date review of Allium science for postgraduates and researchers. It contains commissioned chapters on topics that have shown major advances particularly in the last ten years such as molecular biology, floriculture and biofertilizers.

This book describes the latest advances in Allium genome research. Allium includes plant species known for their huge nuclear genome size, which makes them ideal for somatic chromosome observations in high school experiments. In order to advance the genome analysis of A. cepa and its functional study, scientists in international research collaborations have developed several types of artificially manipulated genetic stocks and analyzed them using modern technologies. The Allium vegetable crop includes garlic, shallot, wakegi onion, Japanese bunching onion, and rakkyo. Bulb onion is one of the world's most important Allium commercial crops, with an estimated annual production of 85.8 million tons in 2013, and ranking third after tomato and watermelon in terms of global vegetable crops.

The name "Allium" is said to come from the Greek word to avoid because of its offensive smell. The genus Allium includes more than 800 species of which only a few have been cultivated as foods. Many of the other members of this genus are popular with gardeners as easy to maintain perennials, although the smell of some members of the genus can be off-putting. The smell is a consequence of breakdown of sulfur-containing compounds which is a characteristic of this family of plants. Garlic, onions, leeks, chives and other members of the genus Allium occupy a unique position both as edible plants and herbal medicines, appreciated since the dawn of civilization. Alliums have been featured through the ages in literature, where they are both praised and reviled, as well as in architecture and the decorative arts. Garlic pills are top-selling herbal supplements while garlic-based products show considerable promise as environmentally friendly pesticides. The remarkable properties of the alliums can be understood based on the occurrence of a number of relatively simple sulfur-containing chemical compounds ingeniously packaged by nature in these plants. This unique book, with a foreword by 1990 Nobel Laureate E.J. Corey, outlines the extensive history and the fascinating past and present uses of these plants, sorting out fact from fiction based upon detailed scrutiny of historic documents as well as numerous laboratories studies. Readers will be entertained and educated as they learn about early cultivation of garlic and other alliums while being introduced to the chemistry and biochemistry. They will learn how alliums have been portrayed and used in literature, poetry, the arts and how alliums are featured in the world's oldest cookbook. Technical material is presented in a manner understandable to a general audience, particularly through the use of illustrations to simplify more difficult concepts and explain how experimental work is conducted. The book is heavily illustrated with examples of alliums in art, literature, agriculture, medicine and other areas and includes rare botanical drawings of many members of the genus Allium. Essential reading for anyone with a general interest in science, the book is written at a level accessible to experts and non-experts alike. It has sufficient additional detail and references to satisfy both those wanting to know more, as well as researchers in disciplines as diverse as archaeology, medicine, ecology, pharmacology, food and plant sciences, agriculture, and organic chemistry.

This two-volume work surveys the entire range of general aspects of chromosome research in plants. The first volume covers cytogenetics of cereals and millets with more than one chapter being devoted to the same crop to give a detailed treatment to an up-to-date status of chromosome research. This second volume deals with cytogenetics of plant materials including legumes, vegetable and oil crops, sugar crops, forage crops: fibre crops, medicinal crops and ornamentals. The book will be useful both as a reference work and a teaching aid to satisfy a wide range of workers. Every chapter has been written by an expert who has been involved in chromosome research on a particular plant material for many years so that the treatment is authoritative and up-to-date in most cases.