Showing Food Garden onion
General Information | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Name | Garden onion | ||||||||||
Scientific Name | Allium cepa | ||||||||||
Description | The onion (Allium cepa) (Latin 'cepa' = onion), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is used as a vegetable and is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium. This genus also contains several other species variously referred to as onions and cultivated for food, such as the Japanese bunching onion (A. fistulosum), the Egyptian onion (A. ×proliferum), and the Canada onion (A. canadense). The name "wild onion" is applied to a number of Allium species but A. cepa is exclusively known from cultivation and its ancestral wild original form is not known, although escapes from cultivation have become established in some regions.The onion is most frequently a biennial or a perennial plant, but is usually treated as an annual and harvested in its first growing season. Onions are cultivated and used around the world. As a foodstuff they are usually served cooked, as a vegetable or part of a prepared savoury dish, but can also be eaten raw or used to make pickles or chutneys. They are pungent when chopped and contain certain chemical substances which irritate the eyes. Onions contain phenolics and flavonoids that have potential anti-inflammatory, anti-cholesterol, anticancer and antioxidant properties. | ||||||||||
Primary ID | FOOD00006 | ||||||||||
Picture | ![]() | ||||||||||
Classification | |||||||||||
Group | Vegetables | ||||||||||
Sub-Group | Onion-family vegetables | ||||||||||
Taxonomy | |||||||||||
Superkingdom | Eukaryota | ||||||||||
Kingdom | Viridiplantae | ||||||||||
Phylum | Streptophyta | ||||||||||
Class | Magnoliopsida | ||||||||||
Order | Asparagales | ||||||||||
Family | Amaryllidaceae | ||||||||||
Genus | Allium | ||||||||||
Species | cepa | ||||||||||
Variety | Not Available | ||||||||||
External Links | |||||||||||
ITIS ID | 42720 | ||||||||||
Wikipedia ID | Onion | ||||||||||
Composition | |||||||||||
Compounds |
Processing... | ||||||||||
Macronutrients |
Processing... | ||||||||||
References | |||||||||||
Content Reference | — Duke, James. 'Dr. Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases. United States Department of Agriculture.' Agricultural Research Service, Accessed April 27 (2004). — Shinbo, Y., et al. 'KNApSAcK: a comprehensive species-metabolite relationship database.' Plant Metabolomics. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2006. 165-181. — U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. 2008. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 21. Nutrient Data Laboratory Home Page. |