Pine Nuts or Pinus edulis,nutritional supplement source and good nut for Art of Love!
Article Content:
- .Botanical Info of Pine Nutes.
- .Pine Nut Facts.
- .Pine Class and Pine Nut Tradition.
- .Pine Nut Values and Species.
- .Pine Nut Recipes and Cooking Tips.
- .Pine nuts and more Aphrodisiac Foods.
- .Aphrodisiac: Technical Article.
- .Research Update:Pine Nuts.
Pine Class and Pine Nut Tradition.
Once appreciated by the Greeks and Romans, the pine kernel, or pine nut, is an edible nut with an exquisite flavor and high protein content. The Roman Legions carried pine kernels as provisions. Nutritional Information
All over Europe it is used as a culinary ingredient in the preparation of meat, fish and vegetable dishes, as well as in the confectionery industry in chocolates and other delicacies. In the United States it is most popular on top of salads.
In Europe, pine nuts come from the Stone Pine (Pinus pinea), which has been cultivated for the nuts for over 6,000 years, and harvested from wild trees for far longer. The Swiss Pine (Pinus cembra) is also used to a very small extent.
The Stone Pine (Pinus pinea; family Pinaceae) is a species of pine native of the north Mediterranean coast, primarily the Iberian Peninsula. This tree has been exploited for its edible pine nuts since prehistoric times. Currently, it is also a widespread horticultural tree, besides being cultivated for the seeds.
The Stone Pine can exceed 25 m height, though is usually rather less tall, 12-20 m being more normal. It has a very characteristic shape, with a short trunk and very broad, smoothly rounded to nearly flat crown. The bark is thick, red-brown and deeply fissured into broad vertical plates. The flexible green needles are in bundles of two, and are 10-20 cm long (exceptionally up to 30 cm). The cones are broad ovoid, 8-15 cm long, and take 36 months to mature, longer than any other pine. The seeds (pine nuts, pi?ones or pinoli) are large, 2 cm long, pale brown with a powdery black coating which rubs off easily, and have a rudimantary 5 mm wing which falls off very easily. The wing is ineffective for wind dispersal, and the seeds are animal-dispersed, originally mainly by the Azure-winged Magpie, but in recent history, very largely by Humans.
In Asia, two species are widely harvested, Korean Pine (Pinus koraiensis) in northeast Asia and Chilgoza Pine (Pinus gerardiana) in the western Himalaya. Four other species, Siberian Pine (Pinus sibirica), Siberian Dwarf Pine (Pinus pumila), Chinese White Pine (Pinus armandii) and Lacebark Pine (Pinus bungeana) are also used to a lesser extent.
The Chilgoza Pine Pinus gerardiana, also known as 'noosa' and 'neoza', is a pine native to the northwestern Himalaya in eastern Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir and northwest India, growing at elevations between 1800-3350 m. It often occurs in association with Blue Pine (Pinus wallichiana) and Deodar Cedar (Cedrus deodara).
The trees are 10-20 (-25) m tall with usually deep, wide and open crowns with long, erect branches. However, crowns are narrower and shallower in dense forests. The bark is very flaky, peeling to reveal light greyish-green patches, similar to the closely related Lacebark Pine (Pinus bungeana). The branchlets are smooth and olive-green. The leaves are needle-like, in fascicles of 3, 6-10 cm long, spreading stiffly, glossy green on the outer surface, with blue-green stomatal lines on the inner face; the sheaths falling in the first year. The cones are 10-18 cm long, 9-11 cm wide when open, with wrinkled, reflexed apophyses and an umbo curved inward at the base. The seeds (pine nuts) are 17-23 mm long and 5-7 mm broad, with a thin shell and a rudimentary wing.
Uses:Chilgoza Pine is well known for its edible seeds. The seeds are locally called and marketed as "Chilgoza" and are rich in carbohydrates and proteins. It is one of the most important cash crops of tribal people residing in the Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh, India.
The Chinese White Pine (Pinus armandii; family Pinaceae) is a species of pine native to China, occurring from southern Shanxi west to southern Gansu and south to Yunnan]], with outlying populations in Anhui and Taiwan; it also extends a short distance into northern Myanmar. It grows at 1,000-3,300 m altitude, with the lower altitudes mainly in the northern part of the range. It is tree reaching 25-40 m height, and 1.5 m trunk diameter.
It is a member of the white pine group, Pinus subgenus Strobus, and like all members of that group, the leaves ('needles') are in fascicles (bundles) of five, with a deciduous sheath. They are 8-20 cm long. The cones are 9-22 cm long and 6-8 cm broad, with stout, thick scales. The seeds are large, 10-16 mm long and have only a vestigial wing; they are dispersed by Spotted Nutcrackers.
The species has three varieties:
Pinus armandii var. armandii. All the range except for the populations below.
Pinus armandii var. dabeshanensis. The Dabie Shan mountains on the Anhui-Hubei border.
Pinus armandii var. mastersiana. Mountains of central Taiwan.
The varieties dabeshanensis and mastersiana are both listed as endangered.
Chinese White Pine has also been reported in the past from Hainan off the south coast of China, but these pines differ in a number of features and are now treated as distinct species, Hainan White Pine Pinus fenzeliana respectively.
Chinese White Pine seeds are harvested and sold as pine nuts, and the wood is used for general building purposes; the species is important in forestry plantations in some parts of China. It is also grown as an ornamental tree in parks and large gardens in Europe and North America. The scientific name commemorates the French missionary and naturalist Armand David, who first introduced it to Europe.
In North America the main species are three of the pinyon pines, Colorado Pinyon (Pinus edulis), Single-leaf Pinyon (Pinus monophylla) and Mexican Pinyon (Pinus cembroides). The other eight pinyon species are used to a small extent, as are Gray Pine (Pinus sabineana), Torrey Pine (Pinus torreyana) and Sugar Pine (Pinus lambertiana).
When first extracted from the pine cone, pine nuts are covered with a hard shell (seed coat), thin in some species, thick in others. The nutrition is stored in the large female gametophytic tissue that supports the developing embryo (sporophyte) in the centre. They are not a true nut as (being a gymnosperm) they lack a carpel (fruit) outside.
Unshelled pine nuts have a long shelf life if kept dry and refrigerated (at -5 to +2 Deg C), but the shell must be removed before the nut is eaten; shelled nuts (and unshelled nuts in warm conditions) deteriorate rapidly, becoming rancid within a few weeks, or even days in warm humid conditions. Pine nuts are commercially available in shelled form, but due to poor storage, these rarely have a good flavour, all too often already being rancid before they are purchased. The most important species in international trade is Korean Pine, harvested in northeast China. In the United States, the pinyon pines have traditionally been the most highly sought after pine nuts.
Pine nuts are called pi?ones in Spanish and pinoli (locally also pinoccoli or pinocchi - Pinocchio means in fact 'pine nut') in Italian. In the US, they are also known as Indian nuts, as they are mainly harvested by Native American ("Red Indian") tribes; in many areas, they have exclusive rights to the harvest.
In the US, bad land use practices have led to the destruction of millions of hectares of productive pinyon pine woods by conversion to grazing lands, and in China, destructive harvesting techniques (breaking off whole branches to harvest the cones) and cutting of the trees for timber have led to losses in production capacity.
Bulk Pine Nut Business:Spain, Italy, China, Portugal and Turkey are the principal producing countries of pine kernels. Also called Indian nut, pinon, pinoli and pignolia, the pine nut is marketed in shelled form. There are two similar varieties. The Italian or Mediterranean pine nut is from the stone pine. It is torpedo-shaped, has a light delicate flavor.
The Chinese pine nut from the Korean Pine is shaped like a long triangle.
Reference:
1.Pine Nuts or Pinus edulis,nutritional supplement source and good nut for Art of Love!
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