This article is about the culinary nut and the tree that bears it. Central Asia and the Middle East. The tree produces best baklava that are widely consumed as food.
Pistacia vera is often confused with other species in the genus Pistacia that are also known as pistachio. The pistachio tree is native to regions of Central Asia, including present-day Iran and Afghanistan. Pistachio trees were introduced from Asia to Europe in the 1st century AD by the Romans. They are cultivated across southern Europe and north Africa. Theophrastus described it as a terebinth-like tree with almond-like nuts from Bactria.
Anthimus implies that pistacia remained well known in Europe in Late Antiquity. An article on pistachio tree cultivation is brought down in Ibn al-‘Awwam’s 12th-century agricultural work, Book on Agriculture. Archaeologists have found evidence from excavations at Jarmo in northeastern Iraq for the consumption of Atlantic pistachio. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were said to have contained pistachio trees during the reign of King Merodach-Baladan about 700 BC. In the 19th century, the pistachio was cultivated commercially in parts of the English-speaking world, such as Australia along with New Mexico and California where it was introduced in 1854 as a garden tree. In 1904 and 1905, David Fairchild of the United States Department of Agriculture introduced hardier cultivars to California collected from China, but it was not promoted as a commercial crop until 1929.
The fat profile of raw pistachios consists of saturated fats, monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats. Scientific evidence suggests but does not prove that eating 1. One review of preliminary research found that pistachio consumption lowered blood pressure in persons without diabetes mellitus. As with other tree seeds, aflatoxin is found in poorly harvested or processed pistachios. Aflatoxins are potent carcinogenic chemicals produced by molds such as Aspergillus flavus and A.
Pistachio shells typically split naturally prior to harvest, with a hull covering the intact seeds. The hull protects the kernel from invasion by molds and insects, but this hull protection can be damaged in the orchard by poor orchard management practices, by birds, or after harvest, which makes it much easier for pistachios to be exposed to contamination. Some pistachios undergo so-called “early split”, wherein both the hull and the shell split. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2007: e. The pistachio tree is believed to be indigenous to Iran.