Listing description
Chia is
grown commercially for its seed, a food that is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, since the seeds yield 25–30% extractable oil, including α-linolenic acid. Of total fat, the composition of the oil can
be 55% ω-3, 18% ω-6, 6% ω-9, and 10% saturated fat.
Detailed description
Chia seeds are typically small
ovals with a diameter of about 1 mm (0.039 in). They are
mottle-colored with brown, gray, black, and white. The seeds are hydrophilic,
absorbing up to 12 times their weight in liquid when soaked. While soaking, the
seeds develop a mucilaginous gel-like coating that gives chia-based beverages a
distinctive texture.
Chia seed is traditionally consumed in Mexico, and
the southwestern United
States, but is not widely known in Europe. Chia (or chian
or chien) has mostly been identified as Salvia
hispanica L. Today, chia is
grown commercially in its native Mexico, and in Bolivia, Argentina, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Australia. In 2008, Australia
was the world's largest producer of chia.[9] A similar species, Salvia columbariae or golden chia, is
used in the same way, but is not grown commercially for food. S. hispanica seed is marketed most often under its
common name "chia", but also under several trademarks.
Chia seed (in Persian: تخم شربتی tokhm-e-sharbatī, meaning
"beverage seed") is used to prepare a sharbat (cold
beverage) in Iran.
A 100-gram serving of chia seeds is a rich source of
the B vitaminsthiamine and niacin (54% and 59%,
respectively of the daily value (DV), and a good
source of the B vitamins riboflavin and folate (14%
and 12%, respectively). The same amount of chia seeds is also a rich source of
the dietary minerals calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, and zinc (>20% DV). See
chart pictured at right for complete nutritional information.
In 2009, the European Union approved chia seeds as a novel food, allowing up to 5%
of a bread product's total matter.
Chia seeds may be added to other foods as a topping
or put into smoothies, breakfast cereals, energy bars, granola bars, yogurt, tortillas, bread, made into a gelatin-like substance, or
consumed raw. The gel can be used
to replace as much as 25% of egg content and oil in cakes while providing other
nutrients.
Preliminary health research
Although preliminary research indicates potential
health benefits from consuming chia seeds, this work remains sparse and
inconclusive.
Drug interactions
No evidence to date indicates consuming chia seeds
has adverse effects on or interactions
with prescription drugs.
Cultivation
Climate and growing cycle length
The growing cycle length for chia varies over
cultivation locations and is influenced by elevation. For production sites located in
different ecosystems in Bolivia, Argentina, and Ecuador, growing cycles are
between 100–150 days in duration. Accordingly,
commercial production fields are located in the range of 8–2200 m altitude
across a variety of ecosystems ranging from
tropical coastal desert to tropical rain forest and inter-Andean dry valley.[19] In northwestern
Argentina, a time span from planting to harvest of 120–180 days is reported for
fields located at elevations of 900–1500 m.
S. hispanica is a short-day
flowering plant, indicating its photoperiodicsensitivity and lack of photoperiodic
variability in traditional cultivars has limited commercial use of chia seeds
to tropical and subtropical latitudes until 2012. Traditional domesticated lines of S. hispanica can now be grown in temperate zones at higher
latitudes in the United States. In Arizona or Kentucky, seed maturation of
traditional chia cultivars is stopped by frost before or after
flower set, preventing seed harvesting. However,
2012 advances in plant breeding led to development
of new early-flowering chia genotypes proving to have
higher yields in Kentucky.
Seed yield and composition
Seed yield varies depending on cultivars, mode of
cultivation, and growing conditions by geographic region. For example,
commercial fields in Argentina and Colombia vary in yield range from 450 to
1250 kg/ha. A small-scale
study with three cultivars grown in the inter-Andean valleys of Ecuador
produced yields up to 2300 kg/ha, indicating that favorable growing
environment and cultivar interacted to produce such high yields. Genotype has a larger effect on yield
than on protein content, oil content, fatty acid composition, or phenolic
compounds, whereas high temperature reduces oil content and degree of
unsaturation and raises protein content.
Soil, seedbed requirements and sowing
The cultivation of S.
hispanica requires light to
medium clay or sandy soils. The plant
prefers well-drained, moderately fertile soils, but can cope with acid soils
and moderate drought. Sown chia
seeds need moisture for seedling establishment, while the maturing chia plant
does not tolerate wet soils during growth.
Traditional cultivation techniques of S. hispanica involve soil preparation by disruption
and loosening followed by seed broadcasting. In
modern commercial production, a typical sowing rate of 6 kg/ha and row
spacing of 0.7–0.8 m is usually applied.
Fertilization and irrigation
S. hispanica can be cultivated
under low fertilizer input, using 100 kg nitrogen per hectare or in some
cases, no fertilizer is used.
Irrigation frequency in chia production fields may
vary from none to eight irrigations per growing season, depending on climatic
conditions and rainfall.
Genetic diversity and breeding
The wide range of wild and cultivated varieties of S. hispanica are based on seed size, shattering of seeds, and seed
color. Seed weight and color have
high heritability, with a single recessive gene responsible for
white color.
Diseases and crop management
Currently, no major pests or diseases affect chia
production. Essential oils in chia leaves have
repellant properties against insects, making it suitable for organic
cultivation. However, virus
infections possibly transmitted by white flies may occur. Weeds may present a problem in early
development of the chia crop until its canopy closes, but because chia is
sensitive to most commonly used herbicides, mechanical weed
control is preferred.
Mesoamerican usage
S. hispanica is described and
pictured in the Mendoza Codex and the Florentine Codex, 16th-century Aztec codices created between 1540
and 1585. Both describe and picture S.
hispanica and its usage by
the Aztec. The Mendoza
Codex indicates that the
plant was widely cultivated and given as tribute in 21 of the 38 Aztec
provincial states. Economic historians suggest that it was a staple food that
was as widely used as maize.
Aztec tribute records from the Mendoza Codex, Matrícula de Tributos,
and the Matricula de
Huexotzinco (1560)—along with
colonial cultivation reports and linguistic studies—give detail to the
geographic location of the tributes, and provide some geographic specificity to
the main S. hispanica-growing
regions. Most of the provinces grew the plant, except for areas of lowland
coastal tropics and desert. The traditional area of cultivation was in a
distinct area that covered parts of north-central Mexico south to Nicaragua. A
second and separate area of cultivation, apparently pre-Columbian, was in
southern Honduras and Nicaragua.
Decorative and novelty uses
In the United States, the first substantial wave of
chia seed sales was tied to Chia Pets in
the 1980s. These "pets" come in the form of clay figures that serve
as a base for a sticky paste of chia seeds; the figures are then watered and
the seeds sprout in a form suggesting the figure's fur. About 500,000 chia pets
a year are sold in the US as novelties or house plants.
PRICE
$21.64/KG
For more information:
mobile: +2348039721941
contact person: emeaba uche
e-mail: emeabau@yahoo.com
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