AY Honors/Edible Wild Plants/Amaranth

Amaranthus, collectively known as amaranth or pigweed, is a cosmopolitan genus of herbs. Approximately 60 species are presently recognised, with inflorescences and foliage ranging from purple and red to gold. Members of this genus share many characteristics and uses with members of the closely related genus Celosia.

People around the world value amaranths, although several species are often considered weeds, as leaf vegetables, cereals and ornamentals.

Uses

Grain amaranth

Several species are raised for amaranth grain in Asia and the Americas. Amaranth grain is a crop of moderate importance in the Himalaya. It was one of the staple foodstuffs of the Incas, and it is known as kiwicha in the Andes today. It was also used by the ancient Aztecs, who called it huautli, and other Amerindian peoples in Mexico to prepare ritual drinks and foods. To this day, amaranth grains are toasted much like popcorn and mixed with honey or molasses to make a treat called alegría (literally "joy" in Mexican Spanish).

Amaranth was used in several Aztec ceremonies, where images of their gods (notably Huitzilopochtli) were made with amaranth mixed with honey. The images were cut to be eaten by the people. This looked like the Christian communion to the Roman Catholic priests, so the cultivation of the grain was forbidden for centuries.

Because of its importance as a symbol of indigenous culture, and because it is very palatable, easy to cook, and its protein particularly well suited to human nutritional needs, interest in grain amaranth (especially A. cruentis and A. hypochondriaca) was revived in the 1970s. It was recovered in Mexico from wild varieties and is now commercially cultivated. It is a popular snack sold in Mexico City and other parts of Mexico, sometimes mixed with chocolate or puffed rice, and its use has spread to Europe and other parts of North America. Amaranth and quinoa are the only two grains that contain complete proteins. Besides protein, amaranth grain provides a good source of dietary fiber and dietary minerals such as iron, magnesium, phosphorus, copper, and especially manganese.

Vegetables

Amaranth species are cultivated and consumed as a leaf vegetable in many parts of the world. In Indonesia, Malaysia, and China it goes by the name "bayam". [1]. In Andhra Pradesh, India this leaf is added in preparation of popular dal called thotakura pappu. In Congo it is known as "lenga lenga" or "biteku teku".

The leaves are also used in a Caribbean soup called Callaloo.

Dyes

The flowers of the Hopi Red Dye amaranth were used by the Hopi Indians as the source of a deep red dye. This dye has been supplanted by a coal tar dye known as Red No. 2 in North America and E123 in the European Union.Template:Unreferenced

Ornamentals

The genus also contains several well-known ornamental plants, such as A. caudatus (love-lies-bleeding), a native of India and a vigorous, hardy annual with dark purplish flowers crowded in handsome drooping spikes. Another Indian annual, A. hypochondriacus (prince's feather), has deeply-veined lance-shaped leaves, purple on the under face, and deep crimson flowers densely packed on erect spikes.

Amaranths are recorded as food plants for some Lepidoptera species including The Nutmeg and various case-bearers of the genus Coleophora: C. amaranthella, C. enchorda (feeds exclusively on Amaranthus), C. immortalis (feeds exclusively on Amaranthus), C. lineapulvella and C. versurella (recorded on A. spinosus).

Nutritional value

Amaranth greens, also called Chinese spinach, hinn choy or yin tsoi (Template:Zh-sp), callaloo, thotakura (telugu) , tampala, or quelite, are a common leaf vegetable throughout the tropics and in many warm temperate regions. It is very popular in Andhra Pradesh. They are a very good source of vitamins including vitamin A, vitamin B6, vitamin C, riboflavin, and folate, and dietary minerals including calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, copper, and manganese. Because of its valuable nutrition, some farmers grow amaranth today. However their moderately high content of oxalic acid inhibits the absorption of calcium, and also means that they should be avoided or eaten in moderation by people with kidney disorders, gout, or rheumatoid arthritis.Template:Fact Reheating cooked amaranth greens is often discouraged, particularly for consumption by small children, as the nitrates in the leaves can be converted to nitrites, similarly to spinach.Template:Fact

Amaranth seeds, like buckwheat and quinoa, contain protein that is unusually complete for plant sources [2]. Most plants do not contain a complete set of amino acids, and thus different sources of protein must be used.

Several studies have shown that like oats, amaranth seed or oil may be of benefit for those with hypertension and cardiovascular disease; regular consumption reduces blood pressure and cholesterol levels, while improving antioxidant status and some immune parameters. PMID:15542354, PMID:17313043, PMID:17207282. While the active ingredient in oats appears to be water soluble fiber, amaranth appears to lower cholesterol via its content of plant stanols and squalene.

Amaranth as a weed

Not all amaranth plants are cultivated. Some appear as weeds. A new strain of the Palmer amaranth has appeared which is glyphosate-resistant and as a result cannot be killed by the widely used Roundup herbicide. Also, this hardy plant can survive in tough conditions. This could be of particular concern to cotton farmers using Roundup Ready cotton.[3]

Anecdotal reports indicate that some people are very allergic to amaranth.

Myth, legend and poetry

Amaranth, or Amarant (from the Greek amarantos, unwithering), a name chiefly used in poetry, and applied to Amaranth and other plants which, from not soon fading, typified immortality.

Aesop's Fables (6th century BC) compares the Rose to the Amaranth to illustrate the difference in fleeting and everlasting beauty.

A Rose and an Amaranth blossomed side by side in a garden,

and the Amaranth said to her neighbour,

"How I envy you your beauty and your sweet scent!

No wonder you are such a universal favourite."

But the Rose replied with a shade of sadness in her voice,

"Ah, my dear friend, I bloom but for a time:

my petals soon wither and fall, and then I die.

But your flowers never fade, even if they are cut;

for they are everlasting."

Thus, in John Milton's Paradise Lost (1667), iii. 353:

"Immortal amarant, a flower which once

In paradise, fast by the tree of life,

Began to bloom; but soon for man's offence

To heaven removed, where first it grew, there grows,

And flowers aloft, shading the fount of life,

And where the river of bliss through midst of heaven

Rolls o'er elysian flowers her amber stream:

With these that never fade the spirits elect

Bind their resplendent locks."

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in Work without Hope (1825), also references the herb, likely referencing Milton's earlier work. (ll 7-10 excerpted):

Yet well I ken the banks where Amaranths blow,

Have traced the fount whence streams of nectar flow.

Bloom, O ye Amaranths! bloom for whom ye may,

For me ye bloom not! Glide, rich streams, away!

The original spelling is amarant; the more common spelling amaranth seems to have come from a folk etymology assuming that the final syllable derives from the Greek word anthos ("flower"), common in botanical names.

In ancient Greece the amaranth (also called chrusanthemon and elichrusos) was sacred to Ephesian Artemis. It was supposed to have special healing properties, and as a symbol of immortality was used to decorate images of the gods and tombs. In legend, Amarynthus (a form of Amarantus) was a hunter of Artemis and king of Euboea; in a village of Amarynthus, of which he was the eponymous hero, there was a famous temple of Artemis Amarynthia or Amarysia (Strabo x. 448; Pausan. i. 31, p. 5). It was also widely used by the Chinese for its healing chemicals, curing illnesses such as infections, rashes, and migraines.

See also

• amaranth (color)

Images

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  Loves-lies-bleeding (Amaranthus caudatus)

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  Green Amaranth (A. hybridus)

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  Seabeach amaranth (A. pumilus), an endangered species of amaranth

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  Red-root Amaranth (A. retroflexus) - from Thomé, Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz 1885

• 

  Spiny Amaranth (Amaranthus spinosus)

• 

  Green Amaranth (Amaranthus viridis)

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  Popping Amaranth (Amaranthus sp.)

References and external links

• Lenz, Botanik der alt. Greich. und Rom. Botany of old. (1859)
• J. Murr, Die Pflanzenwelt in der griech. Mythol. Plants in Greek Mythology. (1890)
• Amaranthus hybridus
• Amaranthus spinosus
• Amaranthus viridis
• Flora online : Flora of North America
• Amaranthus Info
• Alternate Field Crops Manual
• Nutrition facts
• Dye Studies