MadSci Network: Biochemistry
Query:

Re: Why are carrots orange?

Date: Tue Feb 24 21:30:16 1998
Posted By: Dave Williams, faculty,Anne Arundel Community College
Area of science: Biochemistry
ID: 877708587.Bc
Message:

Your assertion that tomatoes are red to attract animals is, to the best of my knowledge, an unproven assumption. Such relationships may have been statistically demonstrated for other fruits but one must be careful in transferring such conclusions from species to species. It's important to remember that not everything has a function which can be explained in terms of advantageous adaptations. Some characteristics are accidental.

Carrots are domesticated plants. In the wild, the plant which we know of as the "carrot" is called Queen Ann's Lace. It's tap root is comparatively white, with, perhaps, a very slight orange cast from the presence of small quantities of the pigment carotene), much like a turnip. Over the many years that carrots have been under domestication artificial selection has produced the high carotene versions with which we are so familiar. Perhaps carrot breeders liked the orange color or thought that it made the carrots more appetizing or desirable.

Moderator's Note, 8/31/2004
R. Cruickshank of Syndey, Australia kindly provided the following two links concerning carrots with new colors and suggestions as to their origins.

In fact, the color of carrot roots has varied in different parts of the world. While ancient tribes, in what is now modern-day Afghanistan, preferred purple varieties, Europeans tended towards yellow-colored variants, and the peoples of India bright red roots. The preference and spread of orange-colored varieties was believed to have started in the 16th century.

The pigments arise from different chemical compounds. Anthocyanins provide the purplish coloration seen in most vegetables while carotenoids produce many of the brilliant orange, yellows and red seen in vegetables. The pigments are not thought to significantly alter the taste of the carrot root.

More information on this subject can be found in the USDA's Carrot Genetics Page and Carrot Pigment information at the University of Wisconsin.

-L. Bry, MadSci Admin


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