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Animals, like humans, eat plants as their main source of nutrition. Apart from fruits and vegetables, plants provide us with cereals, pulses, oil, sugar, spices, and beverages such as tea, coffee, and cocoa. In the previous theory, we spoke about vegetables and fruits as food. Let's take a look at the other plant part, the seed, which is consumed.
Cereals:
Cereals are grass that is cultivated and grown for the edible component of its grain. Cereals are seeds that consist of germ, endosperm, and bran. Cereals provide energy to our body.
Example:
Rice, wheat, maize, oat, barley, bajra, millets, and corn are the important cereals consumed in our country.
Cereals
Pulses:
Pulses are the dry, edible seeds of the plants that belong to the legume family. Pulses grow in pods which come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colours. Pulses help in growth and development.
Example:
Peas, kidney bean (rajma), green gram (moong), black gram (urad), and chickpeas (chana) are some examples of pulses used in our country.
Pulses
Oil:
Seeds of the plants like mustard, groundnut, sunflower, coconut, sesame are rich in oil. Vegetable oil is extracted from the seeds. Oil is a source of energy for our body.
Groundnut oil
Spices:
Spices are the aromatic parts of plants used traditionally to flavour food. It can also be the dried seeds or fruit of temperate plants.
Example:
Coriander, black pepper, cardamom, chilli, mace, nutmeg, cloves, cumin, saffron, cinnamon, bay leaf are some of the spices used.
Spices used in India
Sugar:
Sugar is extracted from sugar cane and sugar beet. Jaggery is also prepared from the juice of the sugarcane. Jaggery and sugar are rich sources of energy.
Jaggery, sugar obtained from sugarcane
Beverages:
Tea and coffee are the most common beverages consumed in India and throughout the world. Tea is obtained from the leaves of the tea plant. Coffee is obtained from the seeds of the coffee plant.
Tea (from died leaves) and coffee (from dried beans)
Important!
Not all plants are edible. Some of the plants can also be poisonous! Example includes castor bean and oleander.
Castor bean plant
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