3.1 About the fruit

3.1 ABOUT THE FRUIT

3.1.1 What is an orange?

Oranges are a kind of modified berry with sectioned pulp inside a separable rind. The sweet orange, accounting for 70% of global orange production, is a hybrid between pomelo (citrus maxima) and mandarin (citrus reticulata).

The word orange comes from the Sanskrit word for an orange tree: naranga. This word originates from Tamil- arañcu translates to “6 and 5” implying 11 and the root nurga means fragrant, assumed to be the origin of the ‘n’ at the beginning in naranga .Oranges typically have 11 individual pieces and hence the name. Naranga reached European languages through Persian (narang) and Arabic (naranj). The word ‘orange’ first appeared in English in the 12th century. It is said to have come via the Old French word orenge.

Figure 7: Evolution of oranges( Source: storymaps.arcgis.com, Author)

3.1.2 Global history

The journey of oranges across the world is quite an interesting one. The origin of oranges is known in the Southeast Himalayan foothills along with all other citrus fruits- covering parts of Assam, Myanmar and China. In the global history mainly the journey of sour and sweet oranges is described. Initial journey was from Himalayan foothills to the vast Arab empire and subsequently to Europe. Across Europe and later to the New World- Americas, the spread of oranges was by explorers on their voyages around the world with the purpose of spreading Christianity and through trade routes. Explorers like Vasco da Gama discovered new varieties of sweet oranges on their voyage across Asia and Africa. Being a citrus fruit it was discovered to be the cure for scurvy on the long voyages of these explorers. Columbus and the Spanish introduced the fruit in North and South America. The fruit soon became popular across the world and enjoyed in raw form as well as juice concentrate for easy transport.

Figure 8: History of oranges across the world through a timeline( Source: Author)

3.1.3 Type of oranges

After understanding the origin of oranges it can be concluded that Orange is a general term forming the umbrella for 3 main types namely- Bitter/sour orange, Sweet orange and Mandarin. Several varieties exist under the broader classification of these parent types shown in the figure. The various varieties differ from one another with respect to the appearance, flavour, aroma and other physical properties. These characteristics are decided by their parent type, the climate, seasons and the region where they are grown.

Figure 9: Classification of the different varieties( Source: Author)