India, July 18 -- .

* CARROTS: The 17th century art work Vegetable Market by the Dutch painter Nicolaes Maes shows pale yellow and purple carrots still being sold. These were the earliest cultivated versions in Central Asia. Records show that the latter two varieties were being traded in Europe by the 12th century. The orange carrot would come about in Europe by the 15th century, as the white European wild variety was cross-bred with the popular yellow one.

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The orange carrot was instantly popular, because of its bright hue, large size and sweeter flavour profile. In cross-breeding of the yellow and white varieties, we had also inadvertently created a supremely healthy snack. At some point, the genetic variations caused carotenoids to...