Onion was highly respected in the Ancient Egyptian civilization. Infact, the well-known "Sham EL Neseem" festival, where fish and onions are eaten is the celebration of the coming spring to the Egyptians. This custom of eating very highly salted (rotten) fish, with massive quantities of onion and spring onions certainly has carried on to our present day by the Egyptians. The botanical name for onion is Allium Cepa. Its common name is garden onion. Its arabic name is Basal. It is a plant in which we wonder where to place it; with spices or with vegetables.
The esteemed Greek physician Hippocrates prescribed Onions as a diuretic, wound healer and pneumonia fighter.
Onions are noted in the Bible as one of the foods most longed for by the Israelites after leaving Egypt for the Promised Land.
The HOLY QURAN narrates the story of the Israelites longing for Onions and asking Moses to pray to GOD asking for onions and other plants. Moses told them to "go down to Egypt", where they can find all what they had longed for, inspite they had much better food from God.
In this handbook almost all the aspects related to onion are covered with a balanced approach. The authors demonstrates the newness of onion concept for readers. This will help the readers to discover easily different concepts, philosophical and technical differences between different techniques. This book is very useful to students, research scientists, agriculturists and project leaders to understand the beneficial uses of onion. |
