Carrots, Daucus carota subsp. sativus, is a biennial plant of the apiaceae family (also called umbelliferae), widely cultivated for its fleshy, edible taproot, generally orange in color, consumed as a vegetable. The carrot represents after the potato the main root vegetable cultivated in the world. It is a root rich in carotene. The carrot is a tuber of hypocotyle, that is to say formed partly by the hypocotyle and for the other part by the upper region of the root, which are tuberized.
Description
The main features are:
The carrot is a biennial herb that can reach up to 30 centimeters high, with a long taproot, most often whitish or orange, thick and elongated. The rod, 30 to 80 cm high, is rigid and covered with stiff hairs.
The radical leaves are rosette at the base, the stem leaves covered with hair are deeply cut into elongated segments (2-3 times divided into strips widened towards the middle, acute at the top, glaucous) and give off an aromatic carrot odor.
The white flowers, of small size, are grouped in umbels of umbellule, inflorescence typical of the family. These umbels have 20 to 30 rays, generally curved towards the top and provided at their base with an involucre of bracts divided into elongated segments; each ray carries an umbellule accompanied by an involucelle of short bracts. The umbels meet small white flowers, sometimes with a sterile central flower, dark purple red, relatively larger, which distinguishes these umbels from carrots at first glance. The outer flowers have uneven petals, the outward ones being relatively larger to attract pollinating insects. Flowering takes place from May to October.
The fruits are curved diakenes, which combine two aromatic striated seeds. These thorny seeds carry ribs with 8 to 10 prickles which participate in their dissemination by animals (epizoochoria). They are small, greenish-brown or gray, convex on one side, flattened on the other. It takes 700 to 800 seeds per gram. The germination capacity is about four years.
Nutritional propertiesThe energy intake of raw carrots is 26 kilocalories per 100 g (= 109 kilojoules per 100 g). Contains 88.2% water, 0.98% protein, 0.20% fat and up to 4.8% sugar. Carrots are rich in beta-carotene (provitamin A). With 25 g we cover more than half of the daily need for vitamin A (in addition to 200% for 100 g). The average vitamin C content is 7 mg per 100 g. It also contains all the vitamins of group B except B12.
The minerals provided are very numerous, in particular calcium, magnesium, potassium and iron. The dietary fiber content is high, with an almost equal distribution between water-soluble fibers (1,742 mg) and non-water-soluble fibers (1,889 mg).
Absorbing a decoction of carrot tops (a handful for two glasses of water) is a grandmother's remedy to cure canker sores.
Food virtues
Carrot juice
Apart from the antioxidants, anti-inflammatories, carotene and vitamins it contains, the carrot has long enjoyed legendary efficacy on human sight. Popular wisdom attributes many virtues to carrots: in particular "making people lovable" and "giving pink bottoms".
History evokes the case of pilots of the Royal Air Force who, during the Second World War, regularly took carrots to improve their night vision. One theory says that this British military propaganda actually focused on the consumption of carrots to conceal the use of radars on board fighter planes at night. Insisting on improving the night vision of pilots to explain their good rate of interception of enemy aircraft would have made it possible not to suspect the existence of on-board radars. But this theory does not seem to have taken place so intentionally because even if the British government encouraged the consumption of carrot by touting its merits concerning night vision, no official archive supporting the will to hide the existence of radars embarked by a campaign food propaganda from the British government has not been found to date.
A major American study published in 2001 demonstrated the benefit of a diet comprising high doses of zinc, beta-carotene (pro vitamin A) and vitamins C and E on the progression of age-related macular degeneration, comparing the progress of the disease over 6 years between those receiving food versus those receiving placebo. But considering the content of the carrot in provitamin A and vitamin C (of the order of a few milligrams), as well as that of vitamin E and zinc (of the order of less than a milligram), compared to the content of the supplementation during the study (of the order of a hundred milligrams), it would be necessary to consume very large quantities of carrots to be able to observe an effect on this disease.
The carrot has many medicinal properties. Indeed, it improves the complexion thanks to beta-carotene, a pro-vitamin A19, more commonly called carotene. This component gives a skin pigmentation effect similar to tanning.