Sugar beet (
Beta vulgaris, L) is a biennial plant. In the first year, it produces an enlarged root and hypocotyl, in which it stores sucrose that provides energy used to flower in the next season. About 35% of global sugar production and 50-55% of the domestic (U.S.) sugar production comes from sugar beet, equating to about 8.4 million metric tons (4). Some sugar beet currently is used for fuel ethanol production. Technically, conversion of sugar to ethanol is a simple process requiring only yeast fermentation, whereas producing ethanol from maize . . .
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Origin and History of Sugar Beets
Sugar beet (
B. vulgaris spp. vulgaris, L.), a genus of the family Amaranthaceae (formerly Chenopodiaceae), is one of the diverse and useful group of cultivars from the same species that includes Swiss chard, fodder beet, and red beet. The first modern sugar beets originated as selections made in the middle of the eighteenth century from fodder beets grown in then German Silesia, but food and medicinal uses of the genus are much older. A precursor is known to have been used as food as early as dynastic times in . . .
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