Plants used as food Papre -2 unit-1

All the plants produce food by the process of photosynthesis, at first it is in form of carbohydrate but as per its requirement, the food is converted in form of protein, lipid, starch etc. and it is stored in the different parts of plants i.e. stem, leaves, root, fruit and seed. All the animal uses the different parts of plant as a source of food. Majority of angiosperm plants are used as a food. The food plants are classified in four group. Cereal, Pulses, Dry fruits, Fruits and vegetables.

A. Cereal Majority seeds of Gramineae or Poaceae family plants are call as cereals. The word Cereal come from the Greek Goddess ‘Annapurna’. The wheat, rice, maize, jowar, bajara, etc are widely used cereals, some of the cereals like rye, banti, samo, barle, etc are not widely used so they are call as small grain or millets. All the grain shows the high value of carbohydrate, and followed by protein, fat, vitamins.

The list of the plants used as cereals is as follow The list of the plants used as cereals is as follow.. Rice: Oryza sativa Linn. Wheat: Triticum aestivum Linn. Jowar; Sorghum vulgare Pers. Maize: Zea maize Linn. Barley: Hordium vulgare linn. Bajara: Pennisetum typhoides Oat: Avena sativa Rai: Secale cereale Banti: Echinochloa stagnina Samo: E. colonum Morayo: E. crusgalli

B. Pulses Majority plants from family Leguminoceae Sub family Fabeceae (papilionaceae) High amount of protein Plant containing root nodules having bacteria

Pigeon pea (tur)- Cajanus cajan Chick pea (gram) – Cicer arietinum Garden pea (pea) – Pisum sativum Soya bean – Glycine max Lablab – Dolichos lablab Lentil- Lens esculenta Green gram - Vigna radiata Black gram - Phaseolus mungo Moth bean - P. aconitiolius Caw pea – Vigna ungulculata

C. Dry fruits Hard fruits, High amount of oil- lipids Used after drying Water nut – Trapa bispinosa Almond – Prunus amygdalus Green almond – Pistacia vera Cashew nut – Anacardium occidentale Wall nut – Juglans regia