Maximum Yield Australia/New Zealand July/August 2020 | Page 54

10 facts on
CARROTS
by Philip McIntosh
Say hello to the
humble carrot: a good
source of vitamins,
minerals, antioxidants,
and fibre. You should
probably eat some.
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The carrot has one of the easiest to remember scientific names —
Daucus carota. Daucus because it’s relatively short, and carota because,
well, it is pretty close to “carrot” (without the extra ‘r’).
The cultivated carrot is considered a D. Carota subspecies sativus,
with the subspecies name sativus meaning “cultivated.”
The wild carrot D. carota still exists but the cultivated variety has
been selectively bred for a larger, sweeter, not too fibrous tap root.
As far as its use for food goes, the carrot seems to have come from the
region around Iran and was originally used for its leaves and seeds
since the big tap-root variety had not been developed yet.
Carrot seeds have been discovered at archeological sites dating
back about 5,000 years ago, so it has been used by humans for at least
that long ago.
The first cultivated carrots were not orange, but were white or
purple, colours that can still be found today.
There are some interesting stories about how the orange carrot
has come to be the dominant variety (look up the Dutch Prince,
William of Orange) but the most likely reason is that people just
liked the taste of the orange ones better. That and they store better
than the other coloured ones.
Carrots put the “carot” in carotene. Beta carotene that is. Beta
carotene is the best known of the carotenoids: red-orange pigments
found in fruits and vegetables, including of course — carrots.
Beta carotene is converted into vitamin A, which is good for you —
except if you eat too much of it; then it becomes toxic.
Do carrots improve or preserve your vision? Kinda. Vitamin
A is important for vision, but if you are getting enough of it from
other sources, eating a bunch of carrots won’t really help.
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