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Onion (scientific name: Allium cepa). In China, Beijingers call it onion, Gansu calls it foreign garlic, and Xinjiang calls it Piyazi (from Persian Piyaz), which is a common Allium plant in Alliaceae.

biennial or perennial herbs. Root string-shaped, dark green cylindrical hollow leaves with waxy surface; Leaf sheaths are thick and scaly, dense around shortened stems, forming bulbs (commonly known as onions); Umbrella with small white flowers; Capsule The rhizome is covered with a thin layer of skin (white, yellow or red), and inside is a layer of meat, usually white or light yellow.

History

Onions are native to Central Asia or West Asia, and there are many different varieties, which have been used in food all over the world.

There are pictures of harvesting onions in ancient Egyptian stone carvings dating back to 1 BC, and then they spread to the Mediterranean region. In the Western Han Dynasty, Zhang Qian communicated with the Western Regions and brought back many species from the Western Regions. At that time, there were already records of planting onions in the western regions.

after the great geographical discovery, it spread from Europe to the world. In the 16th century, it was introduced to North America. It spread to Japan in the 17th century. In the 18th century, Lingnan Miscellanies recorded that onions were introduced into Macau by white Europeans and planted in Guangdong.

According to the information of Taiwan Province Checheng Town Office, in 1912, a Japanese primary school teacher who taught in Tamsui introduced onions from Japan to Taiwan Province for the first time. Since 1918, the Agricultural Experimental Institute of Taiwan Province Governor's Office has tried to plant onions all over Taiwan Province, but the results are not good.

After the Second World War, under the sponsorship of the Provincial Department of Agriculture and Forestry and the Agricultural Resumption Conference, Taiwan Province Agricultural Experimental Institute continued to introduce various varieties of onions and tried them in various parts of Taiwan Province. It was successfully planted in Yunlin, Chiayi, Tainan and Pingtung in southern Taiwan Province, and now Hengchun, Fenggang and Checheng in Pingtung have become the largest onion producing areas in Taiwan Province.

use

the main edible part of onion is the scale leaf, which is mainly used for seasoning. Onions contain allicin and have a strong pungent taste. When cutting onions, this smell will irritate people's eyes and nose and make them cry.

although it tastes spicy when it is raw, it will not be too irritating after cooking. Onion has the effect of purifying blood, in which diallyl disulfide is the main component of pungent smell, which can prevent blood coagulation, effectively clear blood and reduce cholesterol in blood.

Onions also appear in biology experiment classes or biology textbooks, because they are easy to obtain and have no chloroplast, and are often compared with leaf cells of general plants.