The carrot is a vegetable that It enjoys great popularity due to how delicious, nutritious and versatile it is, That is why they have a great presence in the kitchen.
There are many facts about carrots, for example, that it is good for your eyesight, that it strengthens your teeth and that it adds shine to your nails and hair. In addition, some are related to carrots.
However, something that many do not know is the reason why the carrot is orange, there is even a myth that has spread on social networks about it. It was the Dutch who created them, which is totally false.
Popularized by the Dutch, but not created
Phillip Simon, geneticist, researcher and lead scientist of the carrot improvement project of the Agricultural Research Service of the US Department of Agriculture, that orange carrots appeared in the 16th century, and were not created by the Dutch.
Simon said that the Dutch were great agricultural traders, and perhaps came across orange carrots, leading them to promote them, especially in support of William of Orange.
While the Dutch have been instrumental in the popularity of the trade and sale of orange carrots, they are not actually responsible for the orange color in carrots.
Orange carrots first appeared in works of art in Italy and Spain in the 16th century, and were of natural origin, not created by the Dutch.
What causes the orange color in carrots?
The reason why carrots turn orange may be simple to explain, since they contain pigments called carotenes, which reflect only orange light.
This is in turn due to the fact that carrots contain two recessive genes called alpha-carotene and beta-carotene, which have the potential to make carrots take on that color.
There are carrots of colors other than orange.
Carrots are packed with important vitamins and minerals, and orange is undoubtedly their best-known color, although it is not the only one.
The first colors in written records, dating back to 900 AD, were purple and yellow, and the first definitive reports of carrots as a root crop come from present-day Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, Simon noted.
Another color that is less common, and therefore attracts attention in carrots, are those with white tones, which did not appear until the 19th century, which are thought to have been created to feed livestock, to differentiate them from the rest.