Editing Sugar beet (section)

=== Discovery of beet sugar ===
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[[File:Inspecting sugar beet plants.jpg|thumb|upright|A geneticist evaluates sugar beet plants]]
[[File:French sugar beet mill, 1843.jpg|thumb|French sugar beet mill in operation in the 1840s]]

The species beet consists of several cultivar groups. The 16th-century French scientist [[Olivier de Serres]] discovered a process for preparing sugar syrup from (red) [[beetroot]]. He wrote: "The beet-root, when being boiled, yields a juice similar to syrup of sugar, which is beautiful to look at on account of its [[vermilion]] colour"<ref name=worldcat/> (1575).<ref name="histoire" /> Because crystallized cane sugar was already available and had a better taste, this process did not become popular.

Modern sugar beets date to the mid-18th century [[Silesia]], where [[Frederick the Great]], king of [[Prussia]], subsidized experiments to develop processes for sugar extraction.<ref name="Langer" /><ref name="ucdsugar" /> In 1747, [[Andreas Sigismund Marggraf]], professor of physics in the Academy of Science of Berlin, isolated sugar from beetroots and found them at concentrations of 1.3–1.6%.<ref name="Mansfeld" /> He also demonstrated that the sugar that could be extracted from beets was identical to that produced from cane.<ref name="ucdsugar"/> He found the best of these vegetable sources for sugar was the white beet.<ref name=margg/> Despite Marggraf's success in isolating sugar from beets, it did not lead to commercial sugar production.