Maca powder, 200 g, Phyto Biocare

Maca powder, Maca (Lepidium meyenii) or "Andean ginseng", is a biennial herbaceous plant of the Cruciferae family, which grows mainly in Peru and Bolivia, where it is cultivated in areas of the Andes mountains, at an altitude of 3,500 - 4,200 meters . It is a root vegetable related to radish and cabbage. Maca has been cultivated for centuries for its fleshy hypocotyl, being used both as a food and as a medicinal plant because it has exceptional nutritional and tonic properties. For the Incas, as for Andean populations today, maca was and is a sacred plant, a complex staple food that allows the population to more easily withstand the harsh weather of the high plateaus of the Andes. In the Andes, maca is cooked and eaten as a vegetable in daily food. It can be cooked fresh (baked in the oven, grated and added to cooked food, boiled and pureed in vegetable creams, etc.), but that the fresh vegetable can only be found and obtained near the highlands where it is planted. For preservation, storage and marketing, poppy root is dried. The average production per hectare can reach 15 tons of fresh root, but by drying it is reduced to about 5 tons. In this state it can be kept for up to 3-4 years. Poppy crops are ecological: at the high altitudes where they grow, there are no pests for which pesticides are necessary and the soil is organically fertilized with material produced in sheep, llama and alpaca farms. Also, the leaves of the plant are cut when harvesting and left in place to fertilize the soil. Recently, maca is widely cultivated. Poppy production has experienced spectacular growth and is exported worldwide. Important markets are China, Japan and Europe, where it is sold only in powder form - simply, or in medicinal capsules. Maca is one of the plants considered a superfood, its introduction into the human diet bringing a series of benefits for the health and proper functioning of the body. Scientific data The scientific data found in the bibliography indicate a content of 60 - 75% carbohydrates, 10 - 12% proteins, 8 - 10% fibers and 2 - 3% lipids, very similar to that of some cereals such as wheat or rice. Maca is a valuable source of amino acids, the most quantitatively important being arginine, serine, histidine, glutamic acid, glycine, valine, phenylalanine, tyrosine and threonine. Along with these, poppy powder contains fatty acids (linolenic, palmitic and oleic), alkaloids, tannins, polyphenols, vitamins (B1, B2, B12, C, E), saponins, sitosterols, minerals (Ca, K, P , Mg) and trace elements (Zn, I, Mn, Cu). In the book The Healing Power of Rainforest Herbs by Leslie Taylor, complex nutritional values ​​are given relative to 10 g of poppy powder (this being considered and proposed by the authors as the recommended daily dose for human consumption). Nutritional Profile of Dried Maca Root (Average 10 gram serving)