AY Honors/Edible Wild Plants/Amaranth

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The amaranths (also called pigweeds) comprise the genus Amaranthus, a widely distributed genus of short-lived herbs, occurring mostly in temperate and tropical regions. Although there remains some confusion over the detailed taxonomy, there are about 60 Amaranthus species. Several of them are cultivated as leaf vegetables, cereals, or ornamental plants.

Members of this genus share many characteristics and uses with members of the closely related genus Celosia.

Cultivation and uses

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 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 on almost every block of Mexico City, sometimes mixed with chocolate or puffed rice, and its use has spread to Europe and North America. Besides protein, amaranth grain provides a good source of dietary fiber and dietary minerals such as iron, magnesium, phosphorus, copper, and especially manganese.

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 E.E.C., also known as amarynth.

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).

Amaranth as 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 fertilizer. This could be of particular concern to cotton farmers using Roundup Ready cotton.[1]

Nutritional value

Amaranth greens, also called Chinese spinach, hinn choy or yin tsoi (Template:Zh-sp), callaloo, tampala, or quelite, are a common leaf vegetable throughout the tropics and in many warm temperate regions. 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. 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.

Amaranth seeds, like buckwheat and quinoa, contain protein that is unusually complete for plant sources [2]. 

Nutrients in 100 Grams of Amaranth

                       Unit     Amount   % More
                        of        In      Than
Nutrient              Measure  Amaranth   Wheat
Food energy            KCal:  374.000      114
Protein                 Gms:   14.450      115
Total lipid (fat)       Gms:    6.510      423
Total saturated fat     Gms:    1.662      618
Ttl monounsaturated fat Gms:    1.433      717
Ttl polyunsaturated fat Gms:    2.891      461
Total dietary fiber     Gms:   15.200      121
Ascorbic acid           Mg :    4.200    Infinite
Riboflavin              Mg :    0.208      181
Folacin                 Mcg:   49.000      129
Potassium               Mg :  366.000      101
Calcium                 Mg :  153.000      528
Phosphorus              Mg :  455.000      158
Magnesium               Mg :  266.000      210
Iron                    Mg :    7.590      238
Zinc                    Mg :    3.180      120
Copper                  Mg :    0.777      179
Palmitic acid (16:0)    Gms:    1.284      549
Oleic acid      (18:1)  Gms:    1.433      746
Linoleic acid (18:2/n6) Gms:    2.834      472
Phytosterols            Mg :   24.000    Infinite
Histidine               Gms:    0.389      136
Isoleucine              Gms:    0.582      127
Leucine                 Gms:    0.879      103
Lysine                  Gms:    0.747      223
Methionine              Gms:    0.226      112
Threonine               Gms:    0.558      153
Tryptophan              Gms:    0.181      113
Valine                  Gms:    0.679      122
Arginine                Gms:    1.060      178
Alanine                 Gms:    0.799      176

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. Thus, in Milton's Paradise Lost, 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 progessive metal band, Opeth, refers to Amaranth in the extent of immortallity in the song Blackrose Immortal:

"Lullaby of the crescent moon took you
Mesmerized, its kaleidoscopic face
Granted you a hollow stare
Another soul within the divine herd
I have kept it
The amaranth symbol
Hiddin inside the golden shrine
Until we rejoice in the meadow
Of the end
When we both walk the shadows
It will set ablaze and vanish
Black rose immortal"

Aesop's Fables 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."

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).

Amaranth is also the name of the otherworldly pantheon that amuses itself by toying with individuals' luck in Tim Lebbon's novella "The Unfortunate".

"Amaranth" is also the name of a long Sapphic poem by the great imagiste H.D., and is based on Sappho's fragment 131.

In White Wolf Game Studio's Vampire: The Dark Ages books and role-playing games, Amaranth is the medieval name of what then was widely known as Diablerie (consuming the blood and soul of another vampire).

Amarantine is the name of a 2005 album and single by Irish vocal artist Enya.

"Love-Lies-Bleeding" is the title of a 2005 play by Don DeLillo.

Selected species

References and external links

Template:Commonscat

  • Loves-lies-bleeding (Amaranthus caudatus)

  • Green Amaranth (A. hybridus)

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

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

  • Spiny Amaranth (Amaranthus spinosus)

  • Amaranthus spinosus c.jpg

    Callaloo (Amaranthus spinosus "calaloo")

  • Green Amaranth (Amaranthus viridis)

cs:Laskavec de:Amarant (Lebensmittel) eo:Amaranto nutraĵa es:Amaranto fr:Amarante it:Amaranto (alimento) lt:Burnotis nah:Huauhtli nl:Amarant (geslacht)

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