Vitis vinifera

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{{Taxobox | color = lightgreen | name = Vitis vinifera | image = Vitis-vinifera.JPG | image_width = 240px | regnum = Plantae | divisio = Magnoliophyta | classis = Magnoliopsida | ordo = Vitales | familia = Vitaceae | genus = Vitis | species = V. vinifera | binomial = Vitis vinifera | binomial_authority = L. }}

For thousands of years, the fruit and plant of Vitis vinifera, the European grapevine, have been harvested for both medicinal and nutritional value; its history is intimately entwined with the history of wine.

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History

The wild grape, Vitis sylvestris, is native over a broad area extending from Spain in the west to the eastern Mediterranean, southern Transcaucasia and parts of central Asia. It is a vine of humid forests and streamsides. Wild grapes were harvested by foragers and early farmers. Changes in pip shape (narrower in domesticated forms) and distribution point to domestication occurring about 3500-3000 BC, in Southwest Asia or southern Transcaucasia (Armenia and Georgia). Cultivation of the domesticated grape, Vitis vinifera, spread to other parts of the Old World in pre-historic or early historic times.

Grapes followed European colonies around the world, coming to North America around the 1600's, and to Africa, South America and Australia. In North America it hybridized with species from Vitis genus native to that region. Some of these were intentional hybrids created to combat phylloxera, an insect pest which affected the European grapevine to a much greater extent than North American ones and in fact managed to devastate European wine production in a matter of years. Later North American rootstocks became widely used to graft vinifera varieties now able to withstand the presence of phylloxera.

In North America, growing Vitis vinifera was limited mostly to the relatively mild West Coast, including California. But due to the research of Konstantin Frank, it is now widely grown even in the harsher climate of New York State and Southern Ontario.

The plant has large, jagged leaves, and its stem bark tends to peel. The grapes may be green, red, or purple.

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Uses

Use of grapes goes back at least 6,000 years ago when Mesopotamians and Ancient Egyptians had farming plans for the vines [1]. Greek philosophers praised the healing powers of grapes both whole and in the form of wine. Vitis vinifera cultivation and wine making in China began during the Han Dynasty in the second century BC [2] with the importation of the species from Ta-Yuan. However, wild vine "mountain grapes" like Vitis thunbergii were being used for wine making before that time [3].

Using the sap of grapevines, European folk healers cured skin and eye diseases. Another historical use include the leaves being used to stop bleeding, pain and inflammation of hemorrhoids. For treating sore throats unripe grapes were used, raisins were given as treatments for consumption (tuberculosis), constipation and thirst. For the treatment of cancer, cholera, smallpox, nausea, skin and eye infections as well as kidney and liver diseases, ripe grapes were used.

Seedless grape varieties were developed to appeal to consumers, but researchers are now discovering that many of the healthful properties of grapes may actually come from the seeds themselves.

Modern research on resveratrol, a chemical found in grape skins, as a tool against cardiovascular disease, cancer and aging, has begun to back up some of the assertions of the folk healers. The research says, "Resveratrol has been shown to modulate the metabolism of lipids, and to inhibit the oxidation of low-density lipoproteins and the aggregation of platelets" [4]. Grape seed oil, from the crushed seeds is used for its perceived wide range of health benefits.

Grapevine leaves are used filled with minced beef, rice and onions in the making of Balkan traditional Dolma.

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