Broccoli is an edible inexperienced plant within the cabbage circle of relatives (own family Brassicaceae, genus Brassica) whose massive flowering head and stalk are eaten as a vegetable.
The phrase broccoli comes from the Italian plural of broccolo, which means “the flowering crest of a cabbage”, and is the diminutive form of brocco, meaning “small nail” or “sprout”.
Broccoli is classified in the Italica cultivar group of the species Brassica oleracea. Broccoli has large flower heads, normally dark inexperienced in color, organized in a tree-like shape branching out from a thick stalk that is normally light green.
The mass of flower heads is surrounded with the aid of leaves. Broccoli resembles cauliflower, that is a one-of-a-kind cultivar organization of the same Brassica species. Combined in 2017, China and India produced 73% of the sector’s broccoli and cauliflower vegetation.
Broccoli resulted from breeding of cultivated Brassica plants within the northern Mediterranean starting in approximately the sixth century BC. Since the time of the Roman Empire, broccoli has been normally consumed and is eaten raw or cooked.
Broccoli is a particularly wealthy supply of vitamin C and diet K. Contents of its characteristic sulfur-containing glucosinolate compounds, isothiocyanates, and sulforaphane, are dwindled by boiling but are better preserved by steaming, microwaving or stir-frying.
Rapini, every so often called “broccoli raab” amongst other names, bureaucracy similar however smaller heads, and is virtually a type of turnip (Brassica rapa).
Varieties
There are three usually grown forms of broccoli. The maximum acquainted is Calabrese broccoli, frequently referred to certainly as “broccoli”, named after Calabria in Italy. It has huge (10 to 20 cm) inexperienced heads and thick stalks. It is a cool-season annual crop.
Sprouting broccoli has a larger wide variety of heads with many thin stalks. Purple cauliflower is a kind of broccoli grown in Europe and North America. It has a head fashioned like cauliflower, but which include tiny flower buds. It occasionally, however now not always, has a purple cast to the suggestions of the flower buds.
Other popular cultivars encompass Belstar, Blue Wind, Coronado Crown, Destiny, DiCicco, Green Goliath, Green Magic, Purple Sprouting, Romanesco, Sun King and Waltham 29.
Beneforté is quite a few broccoli containing 2–3 times extra glucoraphanin that become produced by crossing broccoli with a wild Brassica variety, Brassica oleracea var villosa.
Production
In 2017, the international production of broccoli (blended for production reviews with cauliflowers) was 26.0 million tonnes, with China and India collectively accounting for 73% of the sector total. Secondary producers, each having about one million tonnes or much less annually, have been the United States, Spain, Mexico, and Italy.
In the United States, broccoli is grown year-spherical in California – which produces 92% of the crop nationally – with 95% of the full crop produced for clean sales.
Cultivation
The majority of broccoli cultivars are cool-climate plants that do poorly in the warm summer climate. Broccoli grows first-class when exposed to an average daily temperature between 18 and 23 °C (64 and 73 °F).
When the cluster of plants, also known as a “head” of broccoli, appear within the middle of the plant, the cluster is usually inexperienced. Garden pruners or shears are used to cut the pinnacle about an inch from the tip. Broccoli should be harvested earlier than the flora on the head blooms vibrant yellow.
Pests
Mostly delivered by means of an accident to North America, Australia, and New Zealand, “cabbage worms”, the larvae of Pieris rapae, the small white butterfly are a commonplace pest in broccoli.[13]
Nutrients
A hundred-gram reference serving of raw broccoli offers 34 calories and is a rich supply (20% or higher of the Daily Value, DV) of nutrition C (107% DV) and diet K (97% DV).
Raw broccoli also contains slight amounts (10–19% DV) of several B nutrients and the dietary mineral manganese, whereas other micronutrients are low in content (much less than 10% DV). Raw broccoli is 89% water, 7% carbohydrates, 3% protein, and contains negligible fat
Cooking
Boiling drastically reduces the levels of broccoli glucosinolates, whilst different cooking methods, consisting of steaming, microwaving, and stir frying, have no great impact on glucosinolate ranges.
Taste
The perceived bitterness of cruciferous vegetables inclusive of broccoli varies from individual to person, but the functional underpinnings of this variation are not known. Some studies review that the gene TAS2R38 may additionally be responsible for sour taste perception in broccoli. Other factors, which include isothiocyanates and polyphenols, are also likely involved in bitterness perception. In some varieties, the commonly bitter-tasting compounds are in less volatile paperwork.