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Vegetable is a term which generally refers to an edible part of a plant. The definition is traditional rather than scientific and is somewhat arbitrary and subjective. All parts of herbaceous plants eaten as food by humans, whole or in part, are normally considered vegetables. Mushrooms, though belonging to the biological kingdom Fungi, are also commonly considered vegetables. In general, vegetables are thought of as being savory, and not sweet, although there are many exceptions. Nuts, grains, herbs, spices and culinary fruits (see below) are normally not considered vegetables.

Fruit, vegetable

Since “vegetable” is not a botanical term, there is no contradiction in referring to a plant part as a fruit while also being considered a vegetable (see diagram). Given this general rule of thumb, vegetables can also include leaves (lettuce), stems (asparagus), roots (carrots), flowers (broccoli), bulbs (garlic), seeds (peas and beans) and botanical fruits such as cucumbers, squash, pumpkins, and capsicums (bell peppers). Botanically, fruits are reproductive organs (ripened ovaries containing one or many seeds), while vegetables are vegetative organs which sustain the plant.

The question "is it a fruit, or is it a vegetable?" has even found its way into the United States Supreme Court, which ruled unanimously in Nix v. Hedden, 1893, that a tomato is a vegetable for the purposes of 1883 Tariff Act, although botanically, a tomato is a fruit.

Commercial production of vegetables is a branch of horticulture called olericulture.

Etymology

Vegetable is also used as a literary term for any plant: vegetable matter, vegetable kingdom.[1] It comes from Latin vegetabilis (animated) and from vegetare (enliven), which is derived from vegetus (active), in reference to the process of a plant growing. This in turn derives from the Proto-Indo-European base *weg- or *wog-, which is also the source of the English wake, meaning "not sleep". The word vegetable was first recorded in print in English in the 14th century. The meaning of "plant grown for food" was not established until the 18th century. [2]

In the diet

Vegetables are eaten in a variety of ways as part of main meals and as snacks. The nutrient content of different types varies considerably. With the exception of pulses, vegetables provide little protein and fat.[3][4] Vegetables contain water soluble vitamins like vitamin B and vitamin C, fat-soluble vitamins including vitamin A and vitamin D, and also contain carbohydrates and minerals and fiber. Among the nutrients vegetables may have include antioxidants, antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, anticarcinogenic nutrients. Also, decaying or rotting vegetables (plant matter in general) may have reduced nutrients, but are often full of probiotic bacteria.

Color

Enlarge picture
Vegetables for sale on a street in Guntur, India
The green color of leafy vegetables is due to the presence of the green pigment chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is affected by pH and changes to olive green in acid conditions, and bright green in alkaline conditions. Some of the acids are released in steam during cooking, particularly if cooked without a cover.

The yellow/orange colors of fruits and vegetables are due to the presence of carotenoids, which are also affected by normal cooking processes or changes in pH.

The red/blue coloring of some fruits and vegetables (e.g. blackberries and red cabbage) are due to anthocyanins, which are sensitive to changes in pH. When pH is neutral, the pigments are purple, when acidic, red, and when alkaline, blue. These pigments are very water soluble.

Storage

Many root and non-root vegetables that grow underground can be stored through winter in a root cellar or other similarly cool, dark and dry place to prevent mold, greening and sprouting. Care should be taken in understanding the properties and vulnerabilities of the particular roots to be stored. These vegetables can last through to early spring and be nearly as nutritious as when fresh.

During storage, leafy vegetables lose moisture and vitamin C degrades rapidly. They should be stored for as short a time as possible in a cool place, in a container or plastic bag.

See also

Wikibooks has an article on

Notes

1. ^ Swedenborg, Emanuel. (2003) Swedenborg Concordance 1888. Kessinger Publishing. p. 502. ISBN 0-7661-3728-7.
2. ^ Ayto, John (1993). Dictionary of Word Origins. New York: Arcade Publishing. ISBN 1-55970-214-1. 
3. ^ Woodruff, Sandra. (1995) Secrets of Fat-Free Cooking. Avery. p. 85. ISBN 0-89529-668-3.
4. ^ Whitaker, Julian. (2001) Reversing Diabetes. Warner Books. pp. 269-71. ISBN 0-446-67658-6.

External links

eating (formally, ingestion) is the process of consuming nutrition, i.e. food, for the purpose of providing for the nutritional needs of an animal, particularly their energy requirements and to grow.
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Plantae
Haeckel, 1866[1]

Divisions

Green algae
  • Chlorophyta
  • Charophyta
Land plants (embryophytes)
  • Non-vascular land plants (bryophytes)

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Science (from the Latin scientia, 'knowledge'), in the broadest sense, refers to any systematic knowledge or practice.[1] Examples of the broader use included political science and computer science, which are not incorrectly named, but rather named according to
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A herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaves and stems that die at the end of the growing season to the soil level. A herbaceous plant may be annual, biennial or perennial.

Herbaceous perennial plants have stems that die at the end of the growing season.
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Food is any substance, usually composed primarily of carbohydrates, fats, water and/or proteins, that can be eaten or drunk by an animal or human being for nutrition or pleasure.
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A Mushroom is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of fungus typically produced above ground on soil or on their food source. The standard for the name mushroom is the cultivated white button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus
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kingdom or regnum is a taxon in either (historically) the highest rank, or (in the new three-domain system) the rank below domain. Each kingdom is divided into smaller groups called phyla (or in some contexts these are called "divisions").
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Eukarya
Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
(unranked) Opisthokonta

Kingdom: Fungi
(L., 1753) R.T. Moore, 1980[1]

Subkingdom/Phyla

Chytridiomycota
Blastocladiomycota

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Savory (US) or savoury (British) may refer to:
  • Herbs of the genus Satureja, particularly :
  • Summer savory (Satureja hortensis), an annual herb
  • Winter savory (

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Sweetness is one of the five basic tastes, and is almost universally regarded as a pleasurable experience. Foods rich in simple carbohydrates such as sugar are those most commonly associated with sweetness, although there are other natural and artificial compounds that are much
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nut can be either a seed or a fruit.

Botanical definitions

A nut in botany is a simple dry fruit with one seed (rarely two) in which the ovary wall becomes very hard (stony or woody) at maturity, and where the seed remains unattached or unfused with the
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Cereal crops or grains are mostly grasses cultivated for their edible grains or seeds (i.e., botanically a type of fruit called a caryopsis). Cereal grains are grown in greater quantities and provide more energy worldwide than any other type of crop; they are therefore
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Herbs (IPA: hə(ɹ)b, or əɹb; see pronunciation differences) are seed-bearing plants without woody stems, which die down to the ground after flowering.
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SPICE (Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis) is a general purpose analog circuit simulator. It is a powerful program that is used in IC and board-level design to check the integrity of circuit designs and to predict circuit behavior.
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fruit has different meanings depending on context. In botany, a fruit is the ripened ovary—together with seeds—of a flowering plant. In many species, the fruit incorporates the ripened ovary and surrounding tissues.
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Botany is the scientific study of plant life. As a branch of biology, it is also called plant science(s), phytology, or plant biology. Botany covers a wide range of scientific disciplines that study plants, algae, and fungi including: structure, growth,
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Plantae
Haeckel, 1866[1]

Divisions

Green algae
  • Chlorophyta
  • Charophyta
Land plants (embryophytes)
  • Non-vascular land plants (bryophytes)

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fruit has different meanings depending on context. In botany, a fruit is the ripened ovary—together with seeds—of a flowering plant. In many species, the fruit incorporates the ripened ovary and surrounding tissues.
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A rule of thumb is a principle with broad application that is not intended to be strictly accurate or reliable for every situation. It is an easily learned and easily applied procedure for approximately calculating or recalling some value, or for making some determination.
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Leaf vegetables, also called potherbs, greens, or leafy greens, are plant leaves eaten as a vegetable, sometimes accompanied by tender petioles and shoots.
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L. sativa

Binomial name
Lactuca sativa
L.

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stem is one of two main structural axes of a vascular plant. The stem is normally divided into nodes and internodes, the nodes hold buds which grow into one or more leaves, inflorescence (flowers), cones or other stems etc.
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A. officinalis

Binomial name
Asparagus officinalis
L.

Asparagus officinalis is a flowering plant species in the genus Asparagus from which the popular vegetable known as
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Root vegetables are plant roots used as vegetables.[1] Other underground plants are often, erroneously, called root vegetables. Root vegetables include both true roots such as tuberous roots and taproots, but exclude non-roots such as tubers, rhizomes, corms, and bulbs.
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D. carota

Binomial name
Daucus carota
L.

The carrot (Daucus carota subsp. sativus
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Broccoli is a plant of the Cabbage family, Brassicaceae (formerly Cruciferae). It is classified as the Italica Cultivar Group of the species Brassica oleracea. Broccoli possesses abundant fleshy flower heads, usually green in colour, arranged in a tree-like fashion on
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A bulb is an underground vertical shoot that has modified leaves (or thickened leaf bases) that are used as food storage organs by a dormant plant.

A bulb's leaf bases generally do not support leaves, but contain food reserves to enable the plant to survive adverse
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A. sativum

Binomial name
Allium sativum
L.

Allium sativum L., commonly known as garlic, is a species in the onion family Alliaceae.
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