Beetroot is the name used by the British and some other English-speaking countries including Australia and the New Zealand for the vegetable that Americans in the USA call beets a type of food.
The earliest written mention of the beet comes from 8th century Mesopotamia.
The first known description of beets are of foliage beets (or chards) by Aristotele, who described a red chards. The Greek Peripatetic Theophrastus later describes two different beets, white and black, the colors referring to light and dark green appearance of the leaves.
Hippocrates used leaves of beetroot for binding and dressing wounds while Talmud, written in 4th and 5th century, advises eating beetroot, among other things, for longer life.
The ancient Babylonians were the first to use it for various applications. Early Greeks and Romans used the root for its medicinal properties and the leaves as vegetables.
Ancient Greeks called the beet teutlion and used it for its leaves, both as a culinary herb and medicinally. The Romans were the first to take an interest in the root which they utilized for their medicinal properties. They also were the first to cultivate the plant for its root.
It was not cultivated until the 3rd century and not developed until the 19th century by German and French breeders. It was not until the sixteenth century that beetroot became known as a root vegetable.
By the end of the 15th century cultivated forms of beets were found throughout Europe and used not only for their leaves, but also for the roots.
Although the leaves have been eaten since before written history, the beetroot was generally used medicinally and did not become a popular food until French recognized their potential in the 1800's.
In England, beetroot juice or broth was recommended as an easily digested food for the aged, weak, or infirm. Even in mythology, Aphrodite is said to have eaten beets to retain her beauty. In Victorian times, beetroot was used to bring color to an otherwise colorless diet and as a sweet ingredient in desserts.
In folk magic, if a woman and man eat from the same beet, they will fall in love. In Africa, beets are used as an antidote to cyanide poisoning.
The sugar beet was developed in the 1700s by the Prussians for its sugar content. The potential source of sugar in beets was discovered in 1747 by German chemist
Andreus Maggraf. By the 1880s sugar beets had been developed with 16-17% sugar content and small factories were found in France, Belgian, Germany and Austria.
History of beetroot
