Muskmelon

Cantaloupe melon (Cucumis melo var cantalupensis )

The melon or melon (Cucumis melo ) is a native of the tropics and subtropics plant whose berries are used as a fruit.

It is a species in the genus of cucumber (Cucumis ), therefore, related to the cucumber closer than with the watermelon ( Cucurbitaceae ) is, however, as the melon to the family of Cucurbitaceae. The melon is highly variable, there are many cultivated forms. Sweet forms are used as a dessert melons, not sweet shapes similar to the cucumber as a vegetable.

• 7.1 Notes and references

Features

The melon is an annual plant and forms one to five meters long, mostly twining shoots from. However, there are compact cultivars with short internodes. The Stems are round, their hair is relatively soft compared with the related cucumber. The tendrils are unbranched and are available individually at the nodes. The leaves are eight to 25 inches long and the same width. They are easy heart-shaped with five rounded corners in outline. The leaf margin is finely serrated.

The plants are monoecious, that form on a plant male and female flowers. However, many cultivars are andromonözisch ( have both male and hermaphrodite flowers on one plant ). The male flowers are in few-flowered inflorescences, the female stand individually. The sepals are subulate and shorter than the calyx tube. The crown is pale yellow and has a diameter of two to three centimeters.

The fruit is an oval or round tanks Berry, the head can be large. For large fruits are formed only one or two per plant. The surface is different depending on the variety: smooth in the winter melon with netlike corky wings in muskmelon and with warty - beaded surface with longitudinal grooves in the cantaloupe. Unripe fruits are hairy, mature are bald. The flesh is green to yellow, and orange, white or pink color and contains numerous elongated, flattened seeds. There are both sweet and non-sweet varieties.

The chromosome number is 2n = 24

Ingredients

In 100 grams of edible portion of the fruit following ingredients are included: Nutrition 231 KJ, and 54 kcal, 86 g of water, protein 0.9 g, fat 0.1 g, carbohydrate 12.4 g, dietary fiber from 0.73 to 0, 98 g, Organic acids (mainly citric acid, and malic acid ) 0.08 g minerals: calcium 13 mg, 0.2 mg iron, potassium 309 mg, magnesium 13 mg, 17 mg sodium, 23 mg phosphorus.

The increase in the sugar content during ripening of the fruit is due solely to the increase in sucrose content, which accounts for the majority of the carbohydrates in ripe fruit. The levels of glucose and fructose, remain substantially constant. Other sugars, such as transport substances occurs in the phloem, raffinose and stachyose are not present in the fruit.

The characteristic scent of certain types of melon caused by a mixture of volatile aldehydes, alcohols, esters and acetates (especially benzyl acetate, hexyl acetate and 2- methylbutyl acetate ). Their formation during the ripening is controlled by the plant hormone ethylene. And sulfur-containing compounds is ascribed an important role in the overall aroma.

Dissemination

Wild forms in their natural habitat, there are of South-West Africa over South, East and Northeast Africa, in South West, South Central and South Asia and Australia. They have different names, but according to hybridization and isoenzyme studies are all members of the African Ursprungsart. It remains unclear whether the melon in Africa or South / East Asia to the crop was. The domestication probably took place in parallel on both continents. In Egypt seeds have been found dating back to 3800-3550 BC near Hierakopolis ( Nubian Desert ), more from China ( around 3000 BC ), Iran (3000 BC). The oldest evidence on the European continent come from Greece (ca. 1400-900 BC); Tiryns ( Late Bronze Age ), Kastanas ( early Iron Age ).

Ancient texts Notes: clans / Grades: Pliny XIX ( 23) 67, bottom: Pall. IV 9.6, seed preparation, sowing time: Pall. IV 9.6; Geoponika XII 20, Diätik (see also bottle gourd ): Galen II 5 Recipes: Apicius III 7

The melon is now grown worldwide in the tropics and subtropics where there are a number of regional varieties and varieties. The natural range is suspected in the tropics of Central and Western Asia. A manifold center is located in India. In the Mediterranean region it is likely to be cultivated since ancient times.

Wild growing melons are mainly in Africa and Asia before, but also in Australia and the Pacific. In the areas where they are grown melons grow wild very easily. For Austria it is stated that, although rare and fickle wild, but then preferred to sewage sludge disposal sites.

Use

The fruits are used primarily to thirst breastfeeding due to their high water content of around 94 percent in hot countries. The payments can vary between 4 and 50 tonnes per hectare per year.

The annual world harvest in 2006 totaled 27.6 million tons. The largest producing countries were China ( 15.5 million tons ), Turkey ( 1.8 million tonnes ), USA ( 1.2 million tons ), Iran ( 1.1 million tonnes ) and Spain (1.0 million tonnes). The melon is so sixth place on the vegetables commercially produced. In addition to Spain are larger growing countries in Europe or Romania, Italy and France. In 2003 Germany melons were grown on 70 hectares.

For human consumption in some varieties of high content of vitamins A and C is advantageous, as is the content of lithium and zinc. The content of vitamin E, folic acid, iron and calcium is low in comparison to other fruit and vegetables.

Different varieties

In Europe, the melons are divided into three major groups:

• Winter melons are relatively large (1.5 to 3 kg), have no odor and are very sweet. These include, for example, the ' Amarillo liso ', ' Piel de Sapo ', ' Tendral ' and 'Yellow Canary '. They mature late and are long lasting. In contrast to the other two groups are not the fruit of climacteric.
• Network melons are fragrant and relatively durable. They include ' Wester Shipper ', the two ' Easter Shipper ', ' Honey Dew ' and ' Galia '.
• Cantaloupe melons are fragrant, usually not long lasting. They include the Charentais and ' Ogen '.

In publications of the EU, the species Cucumis melo, is generally referred to as a melon. Within the EU, the measure of the trade type of melons the indication of the variety is mandatory, voluntary. In the marketing standard ( Regulation EC 1615/2001, as last amended by EC 1016/2006 ) about minimum size and minimum sugar content are defined.

The OECD has identified due to the following characteristics of fruit 16 commercial types of melon. The German names follow the German Federal Agency for Agriculture and Nutrition:

• Melon pineapple (Ananas d' Amérique, Persian muskmelon )
• Baskavas
• Branco
• Western Shipper ( rockmelon, American netted melon, cantaloupe melon)
• Yellow Eastern Shipper ( Yellow Italian netted melon, Supermarket )
• Green Eastern Shipper ( Green Italian netted melon )
• Yellow Canary ( Yellow melon, Amarillo, Amarillo Tendral )
• Yellow Charentais
• Green Charentais
• Galia
• Honey Dew
• Kirkagac, Kurkash, Hidir
• Ogen
• Piel de Sapo (or Futuro melon)
• Rochet
• Tendral, Yuva

In India, there are a variety of non-sweet landraces, which are prepared in various forms as a vegetable similar to cucumber: at " phoot " ( var momordica ) tear the fruit to ripen and have a chalky, acidic flesh; " Kakri " is used as a cucumber; " Vellarikkai " is grown especially in Kerala and is storable for several months; Daya Dosa is eaten cooked as a vegetable; Kachri is a semi- wild form with small fruits of 60 to 70 grams, which are used as a garnish of dried vegetables.

In Japan, mainly hybrids (F1 hybrids ) are grown. There are four main types:

• Grünfleischige melons network: this includes with ' Earl's Favorite' with up to 200 U.S. dollars per fruit most expensive variety. She is drawn exclusively in glass houses and tastes particularly sweet
• Red-fleshed melons network:
• Smooth -skinned melons: these include the Makuwa ( var Makuwa ), which are already known in poems from the 8th century AD.
• Oriental Pickling Melon ( var conomon ) is not sweet and is immature processed into sour vegetables, which are called " asa- zuke " and " nara - zuke". Until the 19th century they were more popular than pickles in Japan.

System

In the traditional classification, the melon with some African species (Cucumis hirsutus, and Cucumis Cucumis humifructus Sagittatus ) is grouped. Phylogenetic analyzes showed, however, that the melon belongs to a clade with Asian and Australian species.

The number of melon varieties is very large. In the EU alone are admitted to growing over 500 varieties.

There are different classifications within the article Basic investigations are from Naudin 1859 and the Pangalo of 1929. Pangalo has changed the way implemented as a separate genus Melo with multiple sections and a dozen species. In the works of Naudin and Pangalo later taxonomists relied on. A simple system is that of Munger and Robinson, 1991, the way in six varieties ( agrestis, cantalupensis, inodorus, flexousus, conomon, chito, momordica ) divided.

The following classification is based on the proposal of Pitrat et al. 2000:

• Subspecies agrestis Jeffrey with short hair on ovary Variety conomon Thunberg
• Variety Makuwa Makino
• Variety chinensis Pangalo
• Variety momordica Roxburgh
• Variety acidulus Naudin

• Variety reticulatus
• Variety adana Pangalo
• Variety chandalak Pangalo
• American variety Pangalo
• Variety inodorus Jacquin
• Variety flexuosus L.
• Variety chats Hasselsquist
• Variety tibish Mohamed
• Variety dudaim L.
• Variety chito Morren

Phylogenetic analyzes confirmed the subdivision of Munger and Robinson, in essence, the cultivars of the "Western" varieties cantalupensis and inodorus were clearly separated from the other, mostly non-sweet varieties. The two varieties were distinguished from each other mainly, but some varieties were grouped in the other clade. The other varieties were recognizable mainly as a separate clades.

History

The domestication of melon is estimated at 3000 BC. Around 2000 BC it appears to have been cultivated in ancient Egypt, as in Mesopotamia, eastern Iran and China, in India around 1000 BC In ancient Greece and Rome it was also known, but disappeared in the Middle Ages in Europe again largely. In the 16-17. Century, it was popular in Europe again. In European languages, there are three names for the muskmelon, from which it derives three independent introductions in Europe: " Melon " or similar in all the Romance and Germanic languages, Polish, Czech, Slovenian and Finnish; " Pepo " in Romanian, Greek, Albanian and sometimes Italian; " Dinja " in Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Bulgarian and Hungarian, which from the Latin cydonea ( quince, yellow apple ) is derived.

Documents

• R. W. Robinson, D. S. Decker -Walters: cucurbits. CAB International, Wallingford 1997, pp. 65-70. ISBN 0-85199-133-5 ( Features )
• Susanne Huyskens Wedge: muskmelons. Cultivation, quality, processing and storage. Ulmer, Stuttgart, 2007. ISBN 978-3-8001-4575-1
• Michel Pitrat, Peter Hanelt, Karl Hammer: Some comments on infraspecific classification of cultivars of melon. In: N. Katzir, H.S. Paris: Proceedings of 7th Meeting on Cucurbit Genetics and EUCARPIA Breeding. Acta Horticulturae, Volume 510, 2000, pp. 29-36. ISBN 90-6605-852-8 (classification)