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Solanum melongena L. (Solanaceae)
Also called aubergine;
Turkish: patlican; French: aubergine; Italian: melanzana ; Spanish: berenjena; Greek: melitzana; Arabic: badhinjan
Plant origin
Although most botanists believe that south-eastern India is the place of origin of the eggplant, and some botanists make a case for China, as well as the Malay Peninsula, the place of origin is still unknown. The cultivated eggplant appears to be an improved form of either S. insanum or S. incanum, both of which are native to India.
Plant history
The history of the eggplant in the Mediterranean begins when Arab agriculturists brought the vegetable from Persia and perhaps from the Arabian Peninsula in the 9th or 10th centuries. Arabs seem to have discovered the eggplant already growing in Persia shortly after their conquest of that country in A.D. 642
yet several ancient Arabic names for the eggplant seem to come directly from other Indian names, indicating that the plant may have arrived in the Arabian Peninsula in pre-Islamic times.
Arabs have long been fond of the eggplant, and medieval Arabic cookery manuscripts include lots of recipes. The eggplant was treated with suspicion at first, but soon it became a favorite vegetable. In fact, the medieval Arab toxicologist Ibn Wahshiya (writing circa A.D. 904) said it would be fatal if eaten raw. Sicily was one of the first places in Europe where eggplant was grown after being introduced by Arab farmers.
The plant was grown in Spain by the 10th century, as we know from a brief mention in the anonymous Cordovan Calendar, although the first clear reference to the eggplant in Sicily is from 1309. In Sicily the plant was called melingiana and was grown in garden along with cucumbers and a kind of gourd (squash). Although the eggplant was once called "mad apple" (mala insana) because it was thought to produce insanity, this expression is not the etymological root of the Italian and Sicilian words for eggplant, melanzane and mulinciana, respectively. These words derive from the Arabic word for the plant, badhinjan, with the addition of the initial m. There are numerous recipes for eggplat from 13th century Spain, which is notable because eggplant was relatively new to Europe at the time, so it is remarkable that the plant was in common use. Tortilla de berenjenas, an eggplant puree torilla from Seville, is a recipe from the 13th century Arab-Andalusi (the Spanish Arabs of Andalusia) cookbook.
