Editing Radish (section)

== History ==
Varieties of radish are now broadly distributed globally, but almost no [[archeological]] records are available to help determine their early history and domestication.<ref name="Zohary 2000">{{cite book |last1=Zohary |first1=Daniel |last2=Hopf |first2=Maria |title=Domestication of plants in the Old World |edition=3rd |location=Oxford |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2000 |page=139}}</ref> However, scientists have tentatively located the origin of ''Raphanus sativus'' in [[Southeast Asia]], as this is the only region where truly wild forms have been discovered. [[India]], central [[China]], and [[Central Asia]] appear to have been secondary centers where differing forms were developed. Radishes enter the historical record in {{nowrap|third century BC}}.<ref name="Lewis-Jones 1982">{{cite journal |author1=Lewis-Jones, L.J. |author2=Thorpe, J.P. |author3=Wallis, G.P. |year=1982 |title=Genetic divergence in four species of the genus ''Raphanus'': Implications for the ancestry of the domestic radish ''R. sativus'' |journal=[[Biological Journal of the Linnean Society]] |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=35–48 |doi=10.1111/j.1095-8312.1982.tb02032.x}}</ref>

[[Ancient Greece|Greek]] and [[Roman agriculture|Roman agriculturalists]] of the {{nowrap|first century [[AD]]}} gave details of small, large, round, long, mild, and sharp varieties.<ref name=":0" /> The radish seems to have been one of the first [[Columbian Exchange|European crops introduced to the Americas]]. A [[Germany|German]] botanist<!--if Valerius Cordus in Historia Plantarum, he should be specified--> reported radishes of {{convert|100|lb|kg|order=flip|abbr=off}} and roughly {{convert|3|ft|cm|-1|order=flip|abbr=off}} in length in 1544, although the only variety of that size today is the Japanese [[Sakurajima radish]].<ref name=":0">{{cite web |work=Plant Finder |url=http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=a762 |title=Raphanus sativus |publisher=[[Missouri Botanical Garden]] |location=St. Louis |year=2014 |access-date=22 June 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006121036/http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=a762 |archive-date=6 October 2014 |url-status=live }}</ref> The large, mild, and white [[East Asia]]n form was developed in [[China]], though it is mostly associated in the West with the Japanese [[daikon]], owing to Japanese agricultural development and larger exports.{{Citation needed|date=February 2021}}

===Folklore===
[[Asaph the Jew]] noted that the radish, particularly its leaves, may be useful in [[traditional medicine]] to increase mucus.<ref name=":1" /> During the Middle Ages, [[Ibn Wahshiyya]] considered it a component of poison antidotes, while [[Maimonides]] highlighted its possible uses as a treatment.<ref name=":1" /> Al-Warraq's 10th-century cookbook includes radish as a side dish for ostrich meat and an ingredient in a chicken dish called ''kardanāj''.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Fuks |first=Daniel |last2=Amichay |first2=Oriya |last3=Weiss |first3=Ehud |date=2020-01-27 |title=Innovation or preservation? Abbasid aubergines, archaeobotany, and the Islamic Green Revolution |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-019-00959-5 |journal=Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences |language=en |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=8 |doi=10.1007/s12520-019-00959-5 |issn=1866-9565}}</ref>