CELERY SEEDS [APIUM GRAVIOLENS]

Listing description

Celery is a member of the parsley family of plants and there are many health benefits of celery seeds that we can get. The botanical name of celery is Apium graviolens. 

Detailed description

 Celery is commonly grown in India and France and several other parts of the world. Celery is a kind of vegetable and is used in various American dishes and as a nutritional food. It is bitter and sometimes sour in taste. It is crispy and crunchy in taste. The celery seed is obtained by drying the celery fruit. The celery seeds have less calorific value and are high in nutrition. It has several medicinal properties as welll.

10 Powerful Health Benefits of Celery Seeds

1. One of the most important benefits of celery seeds is because of its cancer fighting ability. It has some active components that are helpful in fighting cancerous^[1] tumor such as polyacetylenes and phthalides.

2. The other significant health benefit of celery seeds is that it helps in managing the blood pressure^[2] levels. Having celery seeds everyday helps in promoting good blood pressure levels.

3. It protects as well as reverses the bad effects of acetaminophen on the liver^[3], which is an analgesic. Having celery seeds everyday balances the harmful effect on the liver. Although this benefit is not backed by any scientific report but many people have  made use of the benefits of celery seeds.

4. Benefits of celery seeds include the ability to reduce the cholesterol level. The cholesterol^[4]blocks the arteries which increases the risk of heart problems. Herbal experts often use celery seeds to cure circulatory system problems.

5. Celery seeds have many nutrients as well as substances such as flavonoids, linoleic acid, coumarins and several volatile oils. Because of the presence of the above named components celery seeds are helpful in curing many diseases.

6. Celery seeds are known to have anti inflammatory agents. Having celery seeds everyday helps in treating pain and inflammation of the joints. Having celery seeds everyday helps in curing inflammation related ailments such as gout, rheumatism as well as arthritis.

7. Celery seeds stimulate the uterus and helps in easing muscle spasms, especially related to the female reproductive system. Celery seeds are helpful in easing menstrual cramps and pains. If women have it on everyday basis then it really eases the symptoms of menstrual discomfort.

8. Celery seeds are diuretic in nature and because of this property they are extremely useful. The excess urinations caused due to the diuretic nature of celery seeds helps flush out the toxins along with extra water from the body. The health benefits of celery seeds are most importantly helpful in flushing out the uric acid along with urine.

9. As the celery seeds are diuretic in nature they are recommended to people with kidney stones, water retention, as well as gout^[5]. Celery seeds do not permit extra accumulation of uric acid as well as fluids in the human body.

10. Celery seeds are antibiotic as well as antiseptic in nature. These properties are excessively essential in curing many kinds of infection in the body. Celery seeds are especially useful in curing infection of the urinary tract. Herbal experts have recommended the consumption of celery seeds to treat bladder ailments, kidney troubles and cystitis.

You can add dried celery seeds to your food, this will help enhance the spicy flavor and make your food more nutritious. The benefits of celery seeds are definitely helpful for maintaining a healthy body in the natural way.

PRICE

$24.88/KG

For more information:

mobile: +2348039721941

contact person: emeaba uche

e-mail: emeabau@yahoo.com

website: www.franchiseminerals.com

CHIA SEED[ SALVIA HISPANICA]

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

website: www.franchiseminerals.com

COCOA BEAN

Listing description

The cocoa bean, also cacao bean^[1] or simply cocoa (/ˈkoʊ.koʊ/) or cacao (/kəˈkaʊ/), is the dried and fully fermented fatty seed of Theobroma cacao, from which cocoa solids and cocoa butter are extracted.^[2] They are the basis of chocolate, as well as many Mesoamerican foods such as mole sauce and tejate.

Detailed description

Etymology

Cocoa can often also refer to the drink commonly known as hot chocolate;^[6] to cocoa powder, the dry powder made by grinding cocoa seeds and removing the cocoa butter from the dark, bitter cocoa solids; or to a mixture of cocoa powder and cocoa butter.^[7][8]

History

The cacao tree is native to the Americas. It may have originated in the foothills of the Andes in the Amazon and Orinoco basins of South America, current day Colombia and Venezuela, where today, examples of wild cacao still can be found. However, it may have had a larger range in the past, evidence for which may be obscured because of its cultivation in these areas long before, as well as after, the Spanish arrived. New chemical analyses of residues extracted from pottery excavated at an archaeological site at Puerto Escondido in Honduras indicate that it was here where cocoa products were first consumed between 1400 and 1500 BC. The new evidence also indicates that, long before the flavor of the cacao seed (or bean) became popular, it was the sweet pulp of the chocolate fruit, used in making a fermented (5% alcohol) beverage, which first drew attention to the plant in the Americas.^[9] The cocoa bean was a common currency throughout Mesoamerica before the Spanish conquest.^[10]

Cacao trees will grow in a limited geographical zone, of approximately 20 degrees to the north and south of the Equator. Nearly 70% of the world crop today is grown in West Africa. The cacao plant was first given its botanical name by Swedish natural scientist Carl Linnaeus in his original classification of the plant kingdom, who called it Theobroma ("food of the gods") cacao.

Cocoa was an important commodity in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. A Spanish soldier who was part of the conquest of Mexico by Hernán Cortéstells that when Moctezuma II, emperor of the Aztecs, dined, he took no other beverage than chocolate, served in a golden goblet. Flavored with vanilla or other spices, his chocolate was whipped into a froth that dissolved in the mouth. It is reported that no fewer than 60 portions each day may have been consumed by Moctezuma II, and 2,000 more by the nobles of his court.^[11]

Chocolate was introduced to Europe by the Spaniards, and became a popular beverage by the mid 17th century.^[12] They also introduced the cacao tree into the West Indies and the Philippines. It was also introduced into the rest of Asia and into West Africa by Europeans. In the Gold Coast, modern Ghana, cacao was introduced by an African, Tetteh Quarshie.

Production

Cocoa pod

A cocoa pod (fruit) has a rough and leathery rind about 2 cm (0.79 in) to 3 cm (1.2 in) thick (this varies with the origin and variety of pod). It is filled with sweet, mucilaginous pulp (called 'baba de cacao' in South America) with a lemonade like taste enclosing 30 to 50 large seeds that are fairly soft and a pale lavender to dark brownish purple color. Due to heat buildup in the fermentation process, cacao beans lose most of the purplish hue and become mostly brown in color, with an adhered skin which includes the dried remains of the fruity pulp. This skin is released easily after roasting by winnowing. White seeds are found in some rare varieties, usually mixed with purples, and are considered of higher value.^[13][14][15] Historically, white cacao was cultivated by the Rama people of Nicaragua.^[16]

Varieties

There are three main varieties of cocoa plant: Forastero, Criollo, and Trinitario. The first is the most widely used, comprising 95% of the world production of cocoa. Cocoa beans of the Criollo variety are rarer and considered a delicacy.^[17] Criollo plantations have lower yields than those of Forastero, and also tend to be less resistant to several diseases that attack the cocoa plant, hence very few countries still produce it. One of the largest producers of Criollo beans is Venezuela (Chuao and Porcelana). Trinitario (from Trinidad) is a hybrid between Criollo and Forastero varieties. It is considered to be of much higher quality than Forastero, but has higher yields and is more resistant to disease than the former.

Harvesting

Cocoa trees grow in hot, rainy tropical areas within 20° of latitude from the equator.^[18] Cocoa harvest is not restricted to one period per year and a harvest typically occurs over several months. In fact, in many countries cocoa can be harvested at any time of the year.^[19]Pesticides are often applied to the trees to combat capsid bugs and fungicides to fight black pod disease.^[20]

Immature cocoa pods have a variety of colours but most often are green, red, or purple, and as they mature their colour tends towards yellow or orange, particularly in their creases.^[19][21] Unlike most fruiting trees, the cacoa pod grows directly from the trunk or large branch of a tree rather than from the end of a branch, similar to jackfruit. This makes harvesting by hand easier as most of the pods will not be up in the higher branches. The pods on a tree do not ripen together; harvesting needs to be done periodically through the year.^[19] Harvesting occurs between three and four times weekly during the harvest season.^[19] The ripe and near-ripe pods, as judged by their colour, are harvested from the trunk and branches of the cocoa tree with a curved knife on a long pole. Care must be used when cutting the stem of the pod to avoid damaging the junction of the stem with the tree, as this is where future flowers and pods will emerge.^[19][22] It is estimated that one person can harvest 650 pods per day.^[20][23]

Harvest processing

The harvested pods are opened —typically with a machete— to expose the beans.^[19][20] The pulp and cocoa seeds are removed and the rind is discarded. The pulp and seeds are then piled in heaps, placed in bins, or laid out on grates for several days. During this time, the seeds and pulp undergo "sweating", where the thick pulp liquefies as it ferments. The fermented pulp trickles away, leaving cocoa seeds behind to be collected. Sweating is important^[24] for the quality of the beans, which originally have a strong bitter taste. If sweating is interrupted, the resulting cocoa may be ruined; if underdone, the cocoa seed maintains a flavor similar to raw potatoes and becomes susceptible to mildew. Some cocoa producing countries distill alcoholic spirits using the liquefied pulp.^[25]

A typical pod contains 20 to 50 beans^[18] and about 400 dried beans are required to make one pound - or 880 per kilogram - of chocolate.^[18] Cocoa pods weigh an average of 400 grams (0.88 lb) and each one yields 35 to 40 grams (1.2 to 1.4 oz) dried beans (this yield is 40–44% of the total weight in the pod).^[20] It is estimated one person can separate the beans from 2000 pods per day.^[20][23]

The wet beans are then transported to a facility so they can be fermented and dried.^[20] They are fermented for four to seven days and must be mixed every two days.^[20][23] They are dried for five to fourteen days, depending on the climate conditions.^[20][23] The fermented beans are dried by spreading them out over a large surface and constantly raking them. In large plantations, this is done on huge trays under the sun or by using artificial heat. Small plantations may dry their harvest on little trays or on cowhides. Finally, the beans are trodden and shuffled about (often using bare human feet) and sometimes, during this process, red clay mixed with water is sprinkled over the beans to obtain a finer color, polish, and protection against molds during shipment to factories in the United States, the Netherlands,United Kingdom, and other countries. Drying in the sun is preferable to drying by artificial means, as no extraneous flavors such as smoke or oil are introduced which might otherwise taint the flavor.

The beans should be dry for shipment (usually by sea). Traditionally exported in jute bags, over the last decade, beans are increasingly shipped in 'Mega-Bulk' bulk parcels of several thousand tonnes at a time on ships, or in smaller lots of around 25 tonnes in 20 foot containers. Shipping in bulk significantly reduces handling costs; shipment in bags, however, either in a ship's hold or in containers, is still common.

Throughout Mesoamerica where they are native, cocoa beans are used for a variety of foods. The harvested and fermented beans may be ground to-order at tiendas de chocolate, or chocolate mills. At these mills, the cocoa can be mixed with a variety of ingredients such as cinnamon, chili peppers, almonds, vanilla and other spices to create drinking chocolate.^[26] The ground cocoa is also an important ingredient in tejate and a number of savory foods, such as mole.

Cocoa bean output in 2012

Nearly 5,000,000 tonnes (4,900,000 long tons; 5,500,000 short tons) of cocoa are produced each year.

The historical global production was

1974: 1,556,484 tons,

1984: 1,810,611 tons,

1994: 2,672,173 tons,

2004: 3,607,052 tons.

The production increased by 131.7% in 30 years, representing a compound annual growth rate of 2.9%.

There were 3.54 million tonnes of cocoa beans produced in the 2008–2009 growing year,^[18] which runs from October to September.^[27] Of this total, African nations produced 2.45 million tonnes (69%), Asia and Oceania produced 0.61 million tonnes (17%) and the Americas produced 0.48 million tonnes (14%).^[18] Two African nations, Ivory Coast and Ghana, produce more than half of the world's cocoa, with 1.23 and 0.73 million tonnes respectively (35% and 21%, respectively).^[18] In 2012, the largest cocoa-bean producing countries in the world are as follows.

Consumption

There are different metrics used for chocolate consumption. The Netherlands has the highest monetary amount of cocoa bean imports (US$2.1 billion); it is also one of the main ports into Europe. The United States has highest amount of cocoa powder imports ($220 million); the US has a large amount of cocoa complementary products. The United Kingdom has the highest amount of retail chocolate ($1.3 billion) and is one of the biggest chocolate consumption per capita markets.

Cocoa and its products (including chocolate) are used worldwide. Per capita consumption is poorly understood, with numerous countries claiming the highest: various reports state that Switzerland, Belgium, and the UK have the highest consumption. However, since there is no clear mechanism to determine how much of a country's production is consumed by residents and how much by visitors, any data with respect to consumption remains purely speculative.

Price

$2000/ton

For more information:

mobile: +2348039721941

contact person: emeaba uche

e-mail: emeabau@yahoo.com

website: www.franchiseminerals.com