Bulk Carrot Powder

Background: The wild ancestor of the carrot may have its origin in Afghanistan. It is in this region that the most diversity of Daucus carota is maintained. The familiar wild carrot plant is known in the West by the common name of Queen Anne’s lace. An Old English superstition asserted that the small purple flower located in the centre of the wild. Queen Anne's lace is the closest living relative to Silphion. Silphion was used by the Romans as a spice but fell away into extinction in the first century AD. Nero was said to have consumed the very last remaining root.

In early use, carrots were grown for their aromatic leaf and seed, not the root. The first mention of used of the root in classical sources was in the 1st century AD.

Grated raw carrot was used as a tonic food and for nutrition.

Description: This root vegetable is usually orange or white in color with a woody texture. The edible part of a carrot is a taproot. It is a biennial plant which grows a rosette of leaves in the spring and summer while building up a sizeable taproot, where are stored large amounts of sugars for the plant to flower in the second year. The flowering stem grows to about 1 m tall, with umbels of white flowers. The ends of the main stalk and branches bear large compound umbels of tiny white or pinkish flowers. The seeds are one-seeded halves of small spiny fruits called schizocarps. Seeds as purchased for planting have had the spines removed.

Carrot flowers are pollinated primarily by honey bees and mason bees.
Carrots are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Common Swift, Garden Dart, Ghost Moth, Large Yellow Underwing and Setaceous Hebrew Character.

Safety: There is no known negative safety information available for this herb.

*Excessive consumption of any carotene-rich foods may lead to a condition called carotoderma: the palms or other skin develop a yellow or orange cast. This is presumed to be related to carotenemia, excessive levels of carotene in the blood. The body slowly converts carotene to vitamin A, and the extra carotene is temporarily stored, usually in the palms of the hands, soles of the feet, and behind the ears. If the cause of the carotenemia is eating excessively high amounts of foods like carrots, the condition will usually disappear after reducing consumption.