name: Flaxseed

flavor_db_name_variants: flaxseed

source: foodb

status: draft

food_db_id: Flaxseed

id: 101

name_scientific: Linum usitatissimum

description: Flax (also known as common flax or linseed) is a member of the genus Linum in the family Linaceae. It is a food and fibre crop that is grown in cooler regions of the world. Flax fibres are taken from the stem of the plant and are two to three times as strong as those of cotton. As well, flax fibres are naturally smooth and straight. Europe and North America depended on flax for cloth until the nineteenth century, when cotton overtook flax as the most common plant used for making linen paper. Flax is grown on the Canadian Praires for linseed oil, which is used as a drying oil in paints and varnish and in products such as linoleum and printing inks. It is native to the region extending from the eastern Mediterranean to India and was probably first domesticated in the Fertile Crescent. Flax was extensively cultivated in ancient Ethiopia and ancient Egypt. A discovery reported in 2009 of spun, dyed, and knotted wild flax fibers in a prehistoric cave in the Republic of Georgia shows that the plant was already in use by humans at the surprisingly early date of 30,000 B.C. New Zealand flax is not related to flax but was named after it, as both plants are used to produce fibers.

itis_id: 29226

wikipedia_id: Flax

picture_file_name: 101.jpg

picture_content_type: image/jpeg

picture_file_size: 106535

picture_updated_at: 2012-04-20T09:44:20.000Z

legacy_id: 108

food_group: Herbs and Spices

food_subgroup: Oilseed crops

food_type: Type 1

created_at: 2011-02-09T00:37:20.000Z

updated_at: 2019-05-14T18:04:16.000Z

creator_id: null

updater_id: null

export_to_afcdb: false

category: specific

ncbi_taxonomy_id: 4006

export_to_foodb: true

public_id: FOOD00101