okra
| okra | ||||||||||||
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Okra fruits ( Abelmoschus esculentus ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Abelmoschus esculentus | ||||||||||||
| ( L. ) Moench |
The okra ( Abelmoschus esculentus ), also known as marshmallow , is a species of the mallow family .
Various names are known for the plant; Edible marshmallow , gombo bean or okolo, Egyptian bean, gambo, gombo, Greek horn, greenhorn, hibiscus fruit, ibisco, lady (s) finger, poplar rose, rose apple. Others are quiabo ( Brazil ), ladys' fingers or bhindi (South Asia), chimbombó ( Cuba ) and bamya (h) ( Arab countries , Albania , Turkey , Iran , Afghanistan , Bulgaria , Greece , Bosnia and Croatia ).
She is one from the highlands of Abyssinia native vegetable plant .
description
The shrub reaches heights of about 2.50 m, but also higher. The stem is light green to reddish, initially with sparse, stiff hairs, later balding. It has simple, serrated, notched to serrated, hand-lobed to sleek, three- to seven-lobed, up to 35 cm in size, spirally arranged leaves. The leaves are initially fine-bristled, the leaf base is often heart-shaped. The long, sparsely hairy leaf stalks are up to 40 cm long. The hairy stipules are up to 2 cm long and thread-shaped.
The individual, axillary white to light yellow also purple, fine-veined, short-stalked flowers are about 5 cm in size. The up to 15 narrow, elongated to lanceolate, stiff-haired up to 2.5 cm long and up to 3 mm wide outer sepals are sloping. The pointed, hairy sepals are approx. 3–5 cm long and often only gathered on one side of the corolla. The five spirally overlapping, free petals are approx. 4–7 cm long with a base that is purple-violet on the inside and outside.
The fine-haired, light green ovary is on top with 5–10 fused style arms with dark purple, fine-haired stigmas. As with all members of the subfamily Malvoideae , the many whitish stamens have grown together to form a tube surrounding the pistil , the Columna .
The cucumber-shaped, longitudinally ribbed, 5–10-angular, slightly curved and tapering capsule fruits (colloquially “ pods ”) are fruit vegetables , they are up to 25 cm long and approx. 2–5 cm thick. Their shells are first light to dark green, but there are also reddish variations, with a fine fuzz , mature they are dry and brown. The cross-section mostly five- to seven-sided fruits contain about 50-100 seeds. In young fruits, the seeds, which are about 4–6 mm in size, are pearl-like, rounded and whitish, when ripe they are greenish, brownish to grayish with a concentrically lined seed coat. The thousand-grain mass is approx. 30-80 grams, they are epigeic germinating .
The number of chromosomes is 2n = 120 or 130.
Use in the kitchen
The okra is one of the oldest vegetables. It was cultivated by the Egyptians on the banks of the Nile at least 3000 years ago , but it has been cultivated for 4000 years. Today it is widespread as a vegetable almost all over the world. It came to the USA, for example, in connection with the slave trade . The word "okra" is borrowed from a West African language, probably the Igbo or the Akan .
The main producing countries are India , Nigeria and Sudan . The taste of the low-calorie pods of okra is reminiscent of green beans and is eaten as a vegetable . It is mainly used in the Arab, African and Asian regions, but is also very popular in the northeast of Brazil , the southern states of the USA, the Caribbean , Turkey and Greece . It is used, for example, in a Creole stew, the gumbo , but it can also be fried, served as a normal vegetable or eaten raw . The taste is almost neutral, mild to bitter.
In Japan okra ( Japanese オ ク ラ ) is often cut into slices and eaten mixed with natto . When cooked, the pod gives off a slimy substance that is suitable for thickening food. If you are not interested in it or if you even want to do without the slimy substance, you can either blanch the okra for five minutes in vinegar water (first cut off the tip and remove the stem) and then quench with cold water, or before processing it for one to two hours in cold water Soak lemon water.
Dried okra pieces are also used to thicken ragouts or sauces by simply allowing them to cook.
The ripe seeds of the fruit can also be eaten roasted or used as a coffee substitute .
Oil can also be extracted from the seeds.
World production
In 2016 the world harvest was 8.9 million tons. The country with the largest production of okra in the world was India , which produced 61.9% of the world's harvest. The ten largest producing countries brought in around 95.7% of the world harvest. Okra is grown almost exclusively in Asia and Africa.
The ten largest okra producers in 2016 were:
| rank | Country of production | Amount in t |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
 India
|
5,507,000 |
| 2 |
 Nigeria
|
1,978,286 |
| 3 |
 Sudan
|
287,300 |
| 4th |
 Mali
|
241.033 |
| 5 |
 Pakistan
|
117.961 |
| 6th |
 Ivory Coast
|
112,966 |
| 7th |
 Cameroon
|
90,780 |
| 8th |
 Ghana
|
66,360 |
| 9 |
 Egypt
|
57,721 |
| 10 |
 Malaysia
|
55,856 |
| remaining countries | 385.171 | |
| world | 8,900,434 |
Okra in a tomato-oil sauce
Dried okra, West Africa
Okra blossom
Okra seeds
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_Moench;_seeds.JPG)
literature
- Nadja Biedinger: The world of tropical plants. DuMont Reiseverlag, Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-7701-5294-8 .
- GJH Grubben, OA Denton: Plant Resources of Tropical Africa. 2: Vegetables , Prota, 2004, ISBN 90-5782-147-8 , pp. 25-29, online .
- Abelmoschus esculentus in the Flora of Pakistan.
Web links
- Experience report in okra cultivation (with pictures)
- Comprehensive seminar paper
- Abelmoschus esculentus from Useful Tropical Plants, accessed August 28, 2017.
Individual evidence
- ↑ RTJ Cappers, RM Bekker: Digital Atlas of Economic Plants. Vol. 1, Barkhuis, 2009, ISBN 978-90-77922-59-0 , p. 93.
- ^ Food. Teubner, Gräfe and Unzer, 2015, ISBN 978-3-8338-4898-8 , p. 107.
- ↑ Abelmoschus esculentus at Tropicos.org. In: IPCN Chromosome Reports . Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis
- ↑ a b FAOSTAT production statistics , accessed on January 25, 2018 .