Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa; , from Quechua or ) is a flowering plant in the amaranth family. It is a herbaceous annual plant grown as a crop primarily for its edible seeds; the seeds are high in protein, dietary fiber, B vitamins and dietary minerals especially potassium and magnesium in amounts greater than in many grains. Quinoa is not a grass but rather a pseudocereal botanically related to spinach and amaranth (Amaranthus spp.), and originated in the Andean region of northwestern South America. It was first used to feed livestock 5,2007,000 years ago, and for human consumption 3,0004,000 years ago in the Lake Titicaca basin of Bolivia and Peru.
The plant thrives at high elevations and produces seeds that are rich in protein. Almost all production in the Andean region is done by small farms and associations. Its cultivation has spread to more than 70 countries, including Kenya, India, the United States, and European countries. As a result of increased consumption in North America, Europe, and Australasia, quinoa crop prices tripled between 2006 and 2014, entering a boom and bust cycle.
The quinoa monoculture that arose from increased production, combined with climate change effects in the native Andean region, created challenges for production and yield, and led to environmental degradation.
Description Chenopodium quinoa is a dicotyledonous annual plant, usually about high. It has broad, generally powdery, hairy, lobed leaves, normally arranged alternately. The woody central stem is branched or unbranched depending on the variety and may be green, red or purple. The flowering panicles arise from the top of the plant or from leaf axils along the stem. Each panicle has a central axis from which a secondary axis emerges either with flowers (amaranthiform) or bearing a tertiary axis carrying the flowers (glomeruliform). These are small, incomplete, sessile flowers of the same colour as the sepals, and both pistillate and perfect forms occur. Pistillate flowers are generally located at the proximal end of the glomeruli and the perfect ones at the distal end of it. A perfect flower has five sepals, five anthers and a superior ovary, from which two to three stigmatic branches emerge.
The green hypogynous flowers have a simple perianth and are generally self-fertilizing, though cross-pollination occurs. In the natural environment, betalains serve to attract animals to generate a greater rate of pollination and ensure, or improve, seed dissemination. The fruits (seeds) are about in diameter and of various colors — from white to red or black, depending on the cultivar.
In regards to the "newly" developed salinity resistance of C.quinoa, some studies have concluded that accumulation of organic osmolytes plays a dual role for the species. They provide osmotic adjustment, in addition to protection against oxidative stress of the photosynthetic structures in developing leaves. Studies also suggested that reduction in stomatal density in reaction to salinity levels represents an essential instrument of defence to optimize water use efficiency under the given conditions to which it may be exposed.
Taxonomy The species Chenopodium quinoa was first described by Carl Ludwig Willdenow (1765–1812), a German botanist who studied plants from South America, brought back by explorers Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland.
Quinoa is an allotetraploid plant, containing two full sets of chromosomes from two different species which hybridised with each other at one time. According to a 1979 study, its presumed ancestor is either Chenopodium berlandieri, from North America, or the Andean species Ch. hircinum. On the other hand, morphological features relate Ch.quinoa of the Andes and Ch. nuttalliae of Mexico. More recent studies indicate that Andean and Mexican quinoas were independently domesticated and that both derive from wild North American C. berlandieri, carrying the genome formula AABB, and are likely derived from a hybridization several million years ago between AA and BB diploids closely related to the modern C. subglabrum and C. suecicum, respectively. Quinoa's wild South American ancestor, C. hircinum, may have been translocated from North to South America via zoochory. A feral-weedy quinoa, Ch.quinoa var. melanospermum, is known from South America, but no equivalent closely related to Ch.nutalliae has been reported from Mexico so far.
Studies regarding the genetic diversity of quinoa suggest that it may have passed through three bottleneck genetic events, with a possible fourth to come: The first occurred when the species was created, as its two diploid ancestors underwent a hybridization followed by chromosome doubling, this new species was genetically isolated from its parent species, and thus lost a great deal of genetic diversity. As stated above, these ancestors were possibly C. subglabrum (AA) and C. suecicum (BB) and therefore not the Andean diploid pseudo cereal Chenopodium pallidicaule (cañahua). A second bottleneck may have occurred when quinoa was domesticated from its wild tetraploid ancestor, C. hircinum. It might have been domesticated twice: once in the high Andes and a second time in the Chilean and Argentinean lowlands. A third bottleneck can be considered "political", and has lasted more than 400 years, from the Spanish conquest of the new continent until the present time. During this phase quinoa has been replaced with maize, marginalized from production processes possibly due to its social and religious roles for the indigenous populations of South America, but also because it is difficult to process (dehusk) compared with maize. In the 21st century, a fourth bottleneck event may occur, as traditional farmers migrate from rural zones to urban centers, which exposes quinoa to the risk of further genetic erosion. Better breeding may also result in loss of genetic diversity, as breeders would be expected to reduce unwanted alleles to produce uniform cultivars, but cross-breeding between local landraces has and will likely produce high-diversity cultivars.
Etymology The genus name Chenopodium is composed of two words coming from the Greek χήν,-νός, goose and πόδῖον, podion "little foot", or "goose foot", because of the resemblance of the leaves with the trace of a goose's foot.
The specific epithet quinoa is a borrowing from the Spanish quinua or quinoa, itself derived from Quechua kinuwa.
The Incas nicknamed quinoa chisiya mama, which in Quechua means "mother of all grains".
Distribution Chenopodium quinoa is believed to have been domesticated in the surroundings of the Lake Titicaca, in the Bolivian and Peruvian Andes, from wild or weed populations of the same species. There are non-cultivated quinoa plants (Chenopodium quinoa var. melanospermum) that grow in the area it is cultivated; these may either be related to wild predecessors, or they could be descendants of cultivated plants.
Cultivation Over the last 5,000years the biogeography of Ch. quinoa has changed greatly, mainly by human influence, convenience and preference. It has changed not only in the area of distribution, but also with regard to the climate this plant was originally adapted to, in contrast to the climates on which it is able to successfully grow in now. In a process started by a number of pre-Inca South American indigenous cultures, people in Chile have been adapting quinoa to salinity and other forms of stress over the last 3,000years. Quinoa is also cultivated, since an early date, near the coast of northern Chile, where it was grown by the Chinchorro culture. Ch. quinoa was brought to the lowlands of south-central Chile at an early date from the Andean highlands. Varieties in the lowlands of south-central Chile derive directly from ancestral cultivars which then evolved in parallel to those of the highlands. It has been suggested that the introduction of Ch. quinoa occurred before highland varieties with floury perisperm emerged. There are wide discrepancies in the suggested dates of introduction, one study suggests c. 1000 BC as the introduction date while another suggests 600–1100 AD. In colonial times the plant is known to have been cultivated as far south as the Chiloé Archipelago and the shores of Nahuel Huapi Lake. The cuisine of Chiloé included bread made of quinoa until at least the mid-19th century.
In Chile it had almost disappeared by the early 1940s; as of 2015 the crop is mostly grown in three areas by only some 300 smallholder farmers. Each of these areas is different: indigenous small-scale growers near the border with Bolivia who grow many types of Bolivian forms, a few farmers in the central region who exclusively grow a white-seeded variety and generally market their crops through a well-known cooperative, and in the south by women in home gardens in Mapuche reserves.
When Amaranthaceae became abundant in Lake Pacucha, Peru, the lake was fresh, and the lack of Amaranthaceae taxa strongly indicates droughts which turned the lake into a saltmarsh. Based on the pollen associated with soil manipulation, this is an area of the Andes where domestication of C.quinoa became popular, although it was not the only one. It was domesticated in various geographical zones. With this, morphological adaptations began to happen until having five ecotypes today. Quinoa's genetic diversity illustrates that it was and is a vital crop.Andean agronomists and nutrition scientists began researching quinoa in the early twentieth century, and it became the subject of much interest among researchers involved in neglected and underutilized crop studies in the 1970s.
In 2004, the international community became increasingly interested in quinoa and it entered a boom and bust economic cycle that would last for over ten years. Between 2004 and 2011, quinoa became a more interesting commodity and global excitement for it increased. At this point, Bolivia and Peru were the only major producers of quinoa. In 2013, there was an extreme increase in imports of quinoa by the United States, Canada and various European countries. In 2016, growth began to slow. Imports were still increasing but at a slower rate and quinoa prices declined as other countries began producing it. By 2015, over 75 countries were producing quinoa, as opposed to only eight countries in the 1980s.
Particularly because of the high diversity of Chilean landraces and the plant's adaptation to different latitudes, this crop is now potentially cultivable almost anywhere in the world.
Climate requirements The plant's growth is highly variable due to the number of different subspecies, varieties and landraces (domesticated plants or animals adapted to the environment in which they originated). However, it is generally undemanding and altitude-hardy; it is grown from coastal regions to over in the Andes near the equator, with most of the cultivars being grown between and . Depending on the variety, optimal growing conditions are in cool climates with temperatures that vary between during the night to near during the day. Some cultivars can withstand lower temperatures without damage. Light frosts normally do not affect the plants at any stage of development, except during flowering. Midsummer frosts during flowering, a frequent occurrence in the Andes, lead to sterilization of the pollen. Rainfall requirements are highly variable between the different cultivars, ranging from during the growing season. Growth is optimal with well-distributed rainfall during early growth and no rain during seed maturation and harvesting. Royal Quinoa (Quinoa Real), grown in the Intersalar region of Bolivia between the Uyuni and Coipasa salt flats, endures an extreme environment characterised by high altitude, high salinity, intense UV radiation, aridity, and temperature fluctuations.
United States