Pointed Gourd
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Pointed Gourd
''Trichosanthes dioica'' Roxb., also known as pointed gourd, is a tropical perennial cucurbit plant with its origin in the Indian subcontinent. It is also known as parwal, palwal, potol, or parmalin in different parts of India and Bangladesh. The plant propagated vegetatively and grows with training on a support system (e.g., trellis) as pencil-thick vines (creepers) with dark-green cordate (heart-shaped) simple leaves. It is a well-developed dioecious plants having distinct male and female flowers on staminate and pistillate plants, respectively. The fruits are green with white or no stripes' and have unpalatable seeds. Size can vary from small and round to thick and long — 2 to 6 inches (5 to 15 cm). It thrives well under a hot to moderately warm and humid climate. The plant remains dormant during the winter season and prefers fertile, well-drained sandy loam soil due to its susceptibility to water-logging. India Colloquially, in India, it is called or ''gre ...
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Cyclanthera Pedata
''Cyclanthera pedata'', known as ''caigua'', is a herbaceous vine grown for its edible fruit, which is predominantly used as a vegetable. It is known from cultivation only, and its use goes back many centuries as evidenced by ancient phytomorphic ceramics from Peru depicting the fruits. Origin and distribution Not known in the wild, but presumably native to the Andes where it has been traditionally cultivated. Description ''Cyclanthera pedata'' is a vine that can be 12 m long; the stems are thin; and the leaves can be up to 24 cm long, palmate or pedate in shape. The small flowers can be greenish or white and are borne in racemes. The fruit is light green, ovoid, curved, up to 15 cm long, almost hollow (except for the seeds and a thin flesh layer), with smooth skin or sometimes covered in soft spines; the seeds are black. Cultivation ''Cyclanthera pedata'' is grown at small scale farming in mountain areas of Mexico, Central America and South America. It is sometimes ...
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Confectionery
Confectionery is the Art (skill), art of making confections, which are food items that are rich in sugar and carbohydrates. Exact definitions are difficult. In general, however, confectionery is divided into two broad and somewhat overlapping categories: bakers' confections and sugar confections. The occupation of confectioner encompasses the categories of cooking performed by both the French ''Pâtissier, patissier'' (pastry chef) and the ''confiseur'' (sugar worker). Bakers' confectionery, also called flour confections, includes principally sweet pastries, cakes, and similar Baking, baked goods. Baker's confectionery excludes everyday Bread, breads, and thus is a subset of products produced by a baker. Sugar confectionery includes candies (also called ''sweets'', short for ''sweetmeats'', in many English-speaking countries), candied nuts, chocolates, chewing gum, bubble gum, pastillage, and other confections that are made primarily of sugar. In some cases, chocolate conf ...
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Potassium
Potassium is the chemical element with the symbol K (from Neo-Latin ''kalium'') and atomic number19. Potassium is a silvery-white metal that is soft enough to be cut with a knife with little force. Potassium metal reacts rapidly with atmospheric oxygen to form flaky white potassium peroxide in only seconds of exposure. It was first isolated from potash, the ashes of plants, from which its name derives. In the periodic table, potassium is one of the alkali metals, all of which have a single valence electron in the outer electron shell, that is easily removed to create an ion with a positive charge – a cation, that combines with anions to form salts. Potassium in nature occurs only in ionic salts. Elemental potassium reacts vigorously with water, generating sufficient heat to ignite hydrogen emitted in the reaction, and burning with a lilac- colored flame. It is found dissolved in sea water (which is 0.04% potassium by weight), and occurs in many minerals such as orthocl ...
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Magnesium
Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg and atomic number 12. It is a shiny gray metal having a low density, low melting point and high chemical reactivity. Like the other alkaline earth metals (group 2 of the periodic table) it occurs naturally only in combination with other elements and it almost always has an oxidation state of +2. It reacts readily with air to form a thin passivation coating of magnesium oxide that inhibits further corrosion of the metal. The free metal burns with a brilliant-white light. The metal is obtained mainly by electrolysis of magnesium salts obtained from brine. It is less dense than aluminium and is used primarily as a component in strong and lightweight alloys that contain aluminium. In the cosmos, magnesium is produced in large, aging stars by the sequential addition of three helium nuclei to a carbon nucleus. When such stars explode as supernovas, much of the magnesium is expelled into the interstellar medium where it m ...
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Trace Elements
__NOTOC__ A trace element, also called minor element, is a chemical element whose concentration (or other measure of amount) is very low (a "trace amount"). They are classified into two groups: essential and non-essential. Essential trace elements are needed for many physiological and biochemical processes in both plants and animals. Not only do trace elements play a role in biological processes but they also serve as catalysts to engage in oxidation and reduction mechanisms. The exact definition depends on the field of science: * In analytical chemistry, a trace element is one whose average concentration is less than 100  parts per million (ppm) measured in the atomic count or less than 100 micrograms per gram. * In biochemistry, an essential trace element is a dietary element that is needed in very minute quantities for the proper growth, development, and physiology of the organism. The dietary elements or essential trace elements are those that are required to perform v ...
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Vitamin C
Vitamin C (also known as ascorbic acid and ascorbate) is a water-soluble vitamin found in citrus and other fruits and vegetables, also sold as a dietary supplement and as a topical 'serum' ingredient to treat melasma (dark pigment spots) and wrinkles on the face. It is used to prevent and treat scurvy. Vitamin C is an essential nutrient involved in the repair of tissue, the formation of collagen, and the enzymatic production of certain neurotransmitters. It is required for the functioning of several enzymes and is important for immune system function. It also functions as an antioxidant. Most animals are able to synthesize their own vitamin C. However, apes (including humans) and monkeys (but not all primates), most bats, some rodents, and certain other animals must acquire it from dietary sources. There is some evidence that regular use of supplements may reduce the duration of the common cold, but it does not appear to prevent infection. It is unclear whether ...
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Vitamin A
Vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin and an essential nutrient for humans. It is a group of organic compounds that includes retinol, retinal (also known as retinaldehyde), retinoic acid, and several provitamin A carotenoids (most notably beta-carotene ²-carotene. Vitamin A has multiple functions: it is essential for embryo development and growth, for maintenance of the immune system, and for vision, where it combines with the protein opsin to form rhodopsin the light-absorbing molecule necessary for both low-light ( scotopic vision) and color vision. Vitamin A occurs as two principal forms in foods: A) retinol, found in animal-sourced foods, either as retinol or bound to a fatty acid to become a retinyl ester, and B) the carotenoids alpha-carotene, β-carotene, gamma-carotene, and the xanthophyll beta-cryptoxanthin (all of which contain β-ionone rings) that function as provitamin A in herbivore and omnivore animals which possess the enzymes that cleave and conve ...
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Carbohydrate
In organic chemistry, a carbohydrate () is a biomolecule consisting of carbon (C), hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) atoms, usually with a hydrogen–oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 (as in water) and thus with the empirical formula (where ''m'' may or may not be different from ''n''), which does not mean the H has covalent bonds with O (for example with , H has a covalent bond with C but not with O). However, not all carbohydrates conform to this precise stoichiometric definition (e.g., uronic acids, deoxy-sugars such as fucose), nor are all chemicals that do conform to this definition automatically classified as carbohydrates (e.g. formaldehyde and acetic acid). The term is most common in biochemistry, where it is a synonym of saccharide (), a group that includes sugars, starch, and cellulose. The saccharides are divided into four chemical groups: monosaccharides, disaccharides, oligosaccharides, and polysaccharides. Monosaccharides and disaccharides, the smallest (lower molecul ...
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Perennial Crop
Perennial crops are crops that – unlike annual crops – don't need to be replanted each year. After harvest, they automatically grow back. Many fruit and nut crops are naturally perennial, however there is also a growing movement to create perennial alternatives to annual crops. From the 1920s to the 1950s, researchers in the former Soviet Union attempted to perennialize annual wheats by crossing them with perennial relatives such as intermediate wheatgrass. Interest waned when the crosses repeatedly resulted in sterile offspring, and seed yield decreased significantly. The next major time the project of perennializing grain was picked up was a wheat hybrid developed by the Montana Agricultural Experiment Station in 1986, which the Rodale Institute field tested. For example, The Land Institute has bred a perennial wheat crop known as Kernza. By eliminating or greatly reducing the need for tillage, perennial cropping can reduce topsoil losses due to erosion, increase biological c ...
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Meat
Meat is animal flesh that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted, farmed, and scavenged animals for meat since prehistoric times. The establishment of settlements in the Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of animals such as chickens, sheep, rabbits, pigs, and cattle. This eventually led to their use in meat production on an industrial scale in slaughterhouses. Meat is mainly composed of water, protein, and fat. It is edible raw but is normally eaten after it has been cooked and seasoned or processed in a variety of ways. Unprocessed meat will spoil or rot within hours or days as a result of infection with, and decomposition by, bacteria and fungi. Meat is important to the food industry, economies, and cultures around the world. There are nonetheless people who choose to not eat meat (vegetarians) or any animal products (vegans), for reasons such as taste preferences, ethics, environmental concerns, health concerns or religious dietary rules. Terminology Th ...
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