Onion Allium cepa Kalonji (Onion seeds) A Turkish legend says that when the Devil was cast out from Paradise and first set foot upon the Earth, on the spot where he placed his right foot grew the onion and, on that touched by his left, garlic. In fact the onion has become so basic a commodity world-wide that nowadays it is not known to have a wild form, making the task of tracing its lineage and origin back to a starting point virtually impossible, although the presence of a wild and distant relative in Central Asia lead some to believe that this may have been the starting point for Allium cepa too. There are over 500 members of the allium family, including: Allium ascalonicum, the shallot, which has become a virtual cornerstone of ‘Modern British’ and French ‘Haute Cuisine’. The ancient Greeks were familiar with the shallot, or askolonion as they knew it, which, according to Pliny (1st century AD), was so named because it came from Ashkelon in what is now southern Israel. It is from this original Greek word that most of the other names for modern onions are derived, such as ‘scallion’ which has survived, particularly in the United States, as an alternate name for the spring onion. It is differs from A. cepa, being an aggregate onion, growing in a cluster formation which spreads the shallot by a process of division. Other onions that do this are the ‘Japanese’ onion and the potato onion. Allium porrum, the leek, whose common name is derived from the Saxon leac which they assigned to all the members of the family, such as gar-leac and brade-leac. It is one of the national emblems of Wales, and, although the real reason for this may have been lost in the mists of time, a romantic explanation for this is that it was worn as an identifying bonnet badge by victorious Welsh warriors in a memorable battle against the Saxons in the 7th century. Whether or not this is true, the Celt and Gallic races have developed a true affinity with the leek, producing many classic dishes featuring them, such as Welsh mutton cawl, Cock-a-leekie, Potage Parmentier and ‘Poor Man’s Asparagus’, where immature leeks are served cold and dressed with vinaigrette, parsley and chopped, hard-boiled egg. The leek was popular with the ancients. Leeks are featured in Egyptian tomb paintings and, according to Herodotus, were fed, along with garlic and radishes to the slave force employed to build the Great Pyramid. Greek and Roman texts, such as the cookery book written by Apicius, featured it as a vegetable in its own right. The Roman emperor, Nero was said to have been very fond of leeks, maintaining that they improved the quality of his singing voice, of which he was already inordinately proud. He is said to have eaten so many that his people gave him the nickname Porrophagus, leek-eater. Allium fistulosium, the Oriental onion or Welsh onion is another cluster onion which resembles a large ridged spring onion. Despite its English common name, it does not actually come from Wales but from China. ‘Welsh’ was a prefix which meant ‘foreign in Old English and is also the origin of the ‘Wal’ in walnut, or ‘foreign’ nut. According to Pliny both the onion and garlic were deified in Ancient Egypt, a point repeated by Mrs Beeton in her famous Book of Household Management and Juvenal said that Egypt was a country where onions were adored and leeks were gods. There does seem to be evidence that the Egyptians swore oaths by both and archaeologists have found funerary offerings in Egyptian tombs. The onion was an important part of the staple diet of Mesopotamia, eaten with bread by the masses. Accounts from the 3rd Dynasty of Ur (early 2nd millennium BC) list bread and onions as a daily ration and in a chronicle from 2,100BC, Ur-Nammu of Ur recorded that he saved his garden of leeks and onions by building a temple to Nannar. Onions were also listed as being grown in the Gardens of King Badalan II of Babylon (8th century BC). In Ancient Greece and Rome the onion was not as highly regarded as its cousin the leek as they were regarded as ‘poor man’s’ food, although Theophrastus (372-287BC) mentions several varieties of onion and garlic, indicating enough demand for them to be in daily use in the Greece of his time. He also mentions that when pounded the allia makes a foamy dressing - the forerunner to aioli, perhaps? Apicius used garlic and onion very sparingly in his recipes, hardly surprising, as he tended to concentrate mainly on the less ‘humble’ ingredients. Horace, too, reinforced the image of the onion as being strictly for the lower classes, when he included it in his ‘economical diet’. Ayurveda, the ancient Indian art of dietetics and medicine doesn’t use the onion much in treatment, although it does note that the onion is stimulating, diuretic and an expectorant. Certain sects in India, such as Jains and Hindu Brahmins, are forbidden to eat it, one of the reasons being that it is believed to ‘inflame the baser passions’. Dr Andrew Boorde(1490?-1549), traveller, writer and disgraced cleric concurred with this and noted in his book, A Dyetary of Helth, that ‘Onyons doth promote a man to veneryous actes, and to sompnolence’. The good doctor’s advice in this region is not to be dismissed lightly, as this unfrocked suffragan bishop Chichester was jailed for keeping three whores in his rooms at Winchester. The onion has been cultivated for over 6,000 years and as well as its culinary uses, this bulb has been used by healers world-wide to cure almost every ailment. It has been used against infections, as an effective diuretic, heart tonic, contraceptive, aphrodisiac, expectorant, as a treatment for diabetes and as a decongestant (one of my grandmother's favourite cold-cures was a boiled onion, tied around the neck in an old sock). Far from laughing these claims off, modern science is looking at the onion very seriously. In 1989, a Chinese study found that people who ate the highest amounts of allium vegetables in their diet, i.e.. onions, shallots, leeks, chives, garlic etc., had the lowest rate of stomach cancer. An independent study carried out in the United States at around the same time would seem to reinforce this theory. The onion is rich in flavenoids, one of which, quercetin, is currently being studied for its apparent ability to deactivate carcinogens and tumour promoters. Those onions that are highest in these flavenoids are red and yellow onions and shallot. A separate investigation by Eric Block PH.D. of the State University of New York, uncovered a sulphur compound in onion that can actually prevent the biochemical chain of events that lead to inflammatory reactions and asthma. Well done, Gran! The ancient physicians used onion to treat diabetes and, once again, modern studies have only served to proved them right, as recently it has been discovered that onion does indeed play a part in reducing blood sugar levels. Cooked onions are good for the cardiovascular system, taking just about 1 tablespoon to reverse the tendency for the blood to clot after a fatty meal. It is now known to reduce high blood sugar levels and to promote an increase in ‘good’ cholesterol levels in the blood. In fact, just half a raw onion a day will boost it by 30%. Pasteur in the mid nineteenth century, declared it anti-bacterial and its essences have been proved to kill harmful bacteria, including E-coli and salmonella. One experiment also found that chewing raw onion for 3-8 minutes made the lining of the mouth sterile. 100g of raw onion equals 150kcalories, is 89% water, and contains 1.2g protein, 0.2g fat, 7.9g carbohydrates, 1.4g fibre, 25mg calcium, 0.3mg iron, 3mg sodium, 2mg vitamin A, 0.13mg Thiamin and 5mg vitamin C.