What other secrets could the well-known sunflower seeds hide? After all, sunflower is found everywhere.
A snack from the time of the ancestors, much healthier than the ones we have at hand today; you can nibble on sunflower seeds between meals, without fear that they will spoil your appetite.
Well, it sounds simple, but there is much more to learn about these seeds from a plant that is a globe trotter with a much larger track record than we imagined.
From pre-European America to Tsarist Russia and back, the story of the sunflower seems to be taken from a movie.
Originally from North America - probably one of the first plants grown in America - the sunflower traveled to the old continent, then wrote history in distant Russia, returning home in the form we all know today.
About five thousand years ago, the natives began to cultivate the first varieties of sunflower. There are opinions that the sunflower was domesticated before corn.
Over the generations, the plants have been selected to produce larger and larger seeds and many other features have been improved. Thus, the sunflower we know today is the performance relative of the early plant - over thousands of years, the human race influencing its characteristics.
When Cherokee and other Native Americans began cultivating sunflower, it became an important part of the diet of these peoples - primarily as a good source of fat - that gathering and hunting societies needed to supplement their lean meat. which they ate. In the south, in Mexico, the Aztecs also cultivated the plant, which they worshiped.
There is early evidence of oil by pressing the seeds and using the seed kernel in the preparation of bread. However, sunflower was not just a source of food. Parts of the plant were used to produce a purple dye for clothes and objects, other parts were used for the preparation of medicinal remedies and various ointments, and dried stems were considered a good building material.
No one would have guessed in those days what future was written for this flower, nor the journeys that awaited it.
It is believed that the plant first arrived in the Old World in Spain in the early sixteenth century. Due to its size and beauty, considered the "exotic plant", sunflower was used in those days as an ornamental plant.
The interest in the use of seeds appeared quite difficult: the first registration of a patent for squeezing seed oil was made in England, two centuries later, in 1716.
It was not until the XVIII century that the sunflower gained popularity as a plant of culture, and the first personality we should thank for this might be hard to guess: Peter the Great of Russia. On one of his travels, he discovered the wonderful flower in Holland. Impressed, on his return to Russia he brought with him several sunflower seeds. Received at first reluctantly, the Russians found that during Lent, sunflower oil is a welcome supplement in the diet. Thus, until the beginning of the XVIII century, in Russia, the production and marketing of sunflower oil became a large-scale, very profitable business.
Russia woke up with huge flowers, growing to over two million acres a year.
Two types have been identified: one for oil production and one for seed consumption. The government has even invested money in what we call "research projects" today.
Russian scientist VS Pustovoit was the initiator of the most famous research initiative.
Even today, the scientific awards for the study of sunflower are named after him.
So, in 1830, the sunflower was ready to return home triumphant to America.
It is believed that Russians who emigrated to the United States and Canada took seeds with them, so in the 1880s, companies offered "Mammoth Russian" in catalogs - a much sought after and appreciated variety.
The Americans needed some time to grow sunflower on a large scale. At first it was used as a fodder plant. Then, in 1926, the Sunflower Growers Association began processing the seeds into oil. At that time, in both the United States and Canada, the seed monopoly (sowing material) was held by members of the Russian Mennonite community.
The number of cultivated acres was constantly increasing, as the demand for oil increased.
In 1946, the first crushing plant was put into operation in Canada, then North Dakota and Minnesota started the competition for the largest cultivator.
While the American state of Kansas has adopted the sunflower as its official symbol, the Russians consider the sunflower to be Russia's national flower.
Starting ’XNUMXs the United States cultivated more than five million acres.
On the other side of the ocean, in Europe, the word "cholesterol" had become so common that Russian exporters could no longer meet the demand for oil. European countries had begun importing seeds from the United States to produce their own oil.
With the seventies and eighties, new technology appeared on the horizon, bringing with it hybridization and enrollment in the race for endurance and productivity.
The Guinness Book of Records records the largest flower with a diameter of 82 cm, and the tallest stem recorded so far measured 7,76 m.
Considered the happiest flower in the world, the sunflower is a symbol of light, hope and innocence.
Unfortunately, as with many other plants, some species of sunflower have disappeared. A variety of sunflower that once grew in swampy areas of present-day Los Angeles has completely disappeared. A few other varieties of sunflower are considered on the endangered list.
Keeping the ancient varieties, some Americans Hopi, Havasupai, Mandans and Arikaras continue to grow and keep seeds of the varieties originally cultivated by their ancestors. Although some of these ancient sunflower varieties are on the verge of extinction, seed rescuers recognize their value and importance and make efforts to preserve them.