Almonds

Almonds


 * Origin and history**

Harvesting of the almond crop at Qand-i Badam, India (16th century) The almond is native to the Mediterranean climate region of the Middle East, eastward as far as the Indus. It was spread by humans in ancient times along the shores of the Mediterranean into northern Africa and southern Europe and more recently transported to other parts of the world. The wild form of domesticated almond grows in parts of the Levant; almonds must first have been taken into cultivation in this region. The fruit of the wild forms contains the [|Glycoside] __Amygdalin__, "which becomes transformed into deadly prussic acid (__Hydrogen Cyanide__) after crushing, chewing, or any other injury to the seed. Almond is considered to be one of the earliest domesticated tree nuts. Wild almonds are bitter, its kernel produces deadly cyanide upon mechanical handling, and eating even a few dozen at one sitting can be fatal. Selection of the sweet type, from, the many bitter type in wild, marked the beginning of almond domestication. How man selected the sweet type remains a mystery. It is unclear as to which wild ancestor of almond created the domesticated variety. Ladizinsky suggests the taxon //Amygdalus fenzliana// (Fritsch) Lipsky is the most likely wild ancestor of almond in part because it is native of Armenia and western Azerbaijan where almond was apparently domesticated. While wild almond varieties are toxic, domesticated almonds are not; A common genetic mutation causes an absence of glycoside amygdalin, and this mutant was grown by early farmers, "at first unintentionally in the garbage heaps, and later intentionally in their orchards". Almonds are believed to be one of the earliest domesticated fruit trees due to "the ability of the grower to raise attractive almonds from seed. Thus, in spite of the fact that this plant does not lend itself to propagation from suckers or from cuttings, it could have been domesticated even before the introduction of __grafting__". Domesticated almonds appear in the __Early Bronze Age__ (3000–2000 BC) such as the archaeological sites of Numeria (__Jordan__), or possibly a little earlier. Another well-known archaeological example of the almond is the fruit found in __Tutankhamun's__ tomb in Egypt (c. 1325 BC), probably imported from the Levant Of the European countries that the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh reported as cultivating almonds, Germany[|[] is the northernmost, though the domesticated form can be found as far north as __Iceland__.

The word "almond" comes from Old French //almande// or //alemande//, Late Latin *//amandula//, derived through a form //amygdala// from the Greek ἀμυγδαλή (//amygdalē//) (cf. __amygdala__), an almond. The //al-// in English, for the //a-// used in other languages may be due a confusion with the Arabic article //al//, the word having first dropped the //a-// as in the Italian form //mandorla//; the British pronunciation //ah-mond// and the modern Catalan //ametlla// and modern French //amande// show a form of the word closer to the original. Other related names of almond include mandel or knackmandel (German), amandier or amande (French), mandorlo (Italian), and almendro (Spanish). The adjective //amygdaloid// (literally "like an almond") is used to describe objects which are roughly almond-shaped, particularly a shape which is part way between a rectangle and an ellipse. See, for example, the brain structure [|//amygdala//], which uses a direct borrowing of the Greek term //amygdalē//.
 * Etymology and names**

Several other related species in the genus of //Prunus//, including Apricot (//Prunus armeniaca//) and Black Cherry (//Prunus serotina//), also contain amygdalin. Since the early 1950s, a modified form of amygdalin has been promoted under the names **laetrile** and "Vitamin B17" as a cancer cure. In reality, neither amygdalin nor any derivative such as laetrile is in any sense a vitamin. Studies have found such compounds to be dangerously toxic as well as being clinically ineffective in the treatment of cancer. Taken by mouth they are potentially lethal because certain enzymes (in particular, glucosidases that occur in the gut and in various kinds of seeds, edible or inedible) act on them to produce cyanide. The promotion of laetrile to treat cancer, has been described in the medical literature as a canonical example of quackery, and as "the slickest, most sophisticated, and certainly the most remunerative cancer quack promotion in medical history."
 * Almond quackery cancer**
 * Amygdalin** (from Greek: "almond"), C20H27NO11, is a glycoside initially isolated from the seeds of the tree //Prunus dulcis//, also known as Bitter Almonds.