They much preferred foods from Spain, specifically wheat bread, olive oil, red wine, and meat, and considered maize and cassava damaging to Europeans. Spaniards in their early occupation of Caribbean islands did not want to eat cassava or maize, which they considered insubstantial, dangerous, and not nutritious. The Moche people often depicted yuca in their ceramics. Cassava was a staple food of pre-Columbian peoples in the Americas and is often portrayed in indigenous art. With its high food potential, it had become a staple food of the native populations of northern South America, southern Mesoamerica, and the Taino people in the Caribbean islands, who grew it using a high-yielding form of shifting agriculture by the time of European contact in 1492. The oldest direct evidence of cassava cultivation comes from a 1,400-year-old Maya site, Joya de Cerén, in El Salvador. By 4,600 BC, manioc (cassava) pollen appears in the Gulf of Mexico lowlands, at the San Andrés archaeological site. Forms of the modern domesticated species can also be found growing in the wild in the south of Brazil. esculenta subspecies flabellifolia, shown to be the progenitor of domesticated cassava, are centered in west-central Brazil, where it was likely first domesticated no more than 10,000 years BP. ġ7th-century painting by Albert Eckhout in Dutch Brazil In contrast, cassava leaves are a good source of protein, but deficient in the amino acid methionine. However, they are poor in protein and other nutrients. Cassava roots are very rich in starch and contain small amounts of calcium (16 milligrams per 100 grams), phosphorus (27 mg/100 g), and vitamin C (20.6 mg/100 g).

The flesh can be chalk-white or yellowish. A woody vascular bundle runs along the root's axis. Commercial cultivars can be 5 to 10 centimetres (2 to 4 in) in diameter at the top, and around 15 to 30 cm (6 to 12 in) long. The cassava root is long and tapered, with a firm, homogeneous flesh encased in a detachable rind, about 1 millimetre ( 1⁄ 16 inch) thick, rough and brown on the outside. 5.5 Comparison with other major staple foods.Farmers often prefer the bitter varieties because they deter pests, animals, and thieves. The more toxic varieties of cassava are a fall-back resource (a ' food security crop') in times of famine or food insecurity in some places. It must be properly prepared before consumption, as improper preparation of cassava can leave enough residual cyanide to cause acute cyanide intoxication, goiters, and even ataxia, partial paralysis, or death. Like other roots and tubers, both bitter and sweet varieties of cassava contain antinutritional factors and toxins, with the bitter varieties containing much larger amounts. Nigeria is the world's largest producer of cassava, while Thailand is the largest exporter of cassava starch.Ĭassava is classified as either sweet or bitter. It is one of the most drought-tolerant crops, capable of growing on marginal soils. Cassava is a major staple food in the developing world, providing a basic diet for over half a billion people. The Brazilian farinha, and the related garri of West Africa, is an edible coarse flour obtained by grating cassava roots, pressing moisture off the obtained grated pulp, and finally drying it (and roasting both in the case of farinha and garri).Ĭassava is the third-largest source of food carbohydrates in the tropics, after rice and maize. Cassava is predominantly consumed in boiled form, but substantial quantities are used to extract cassava starch, called tapioca, which is used for food, animal feed, and industrial purposes. Though it is often called yuca in parts of Spanish America and in the United States, it is not related to yucca, a shrub in the family Asparagaceae. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively cultivated as an annual crop in tropical and subtropical regions for its edible starchy tuberous root, a major source of carbohydrates. Manihot esculenta, commonly called cassava ( / k ə ˈ s ɑː v ə/), manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America.

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