Garlic is a species of bulbous flowering plant in the genus Allium. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, Welsh onion, and Chinese onion. It is native to South Asia, Central Asia and northeastern Iran and has long been used as a seasoning worldwide, with a history of several thousand years of human consumption and use. It was known to ancient Egyptians and has been used as both a food flavoring and a traditional medicine. China produced 73% of the world's supply of garlic in 2021.
An onion, also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion which was classified as a separate species until 2011. Its close relatives include garlic, scallion, leek, and chive.
In botany, a bulb is structurally a short stem with fleshy leaves or leaf bases that function as food storage organs during dormancy.
Penicillium is a genus of ascomycetous fungi that is part of the mycobiome of many species and is of major importance in the natural environment, in food spoilage, and in food and drug production.
Allium vineale is a perennial, bulb-forming species of wild onion, native to Europe, northwestern Africa and the Middle East. The species was introduced in Australia and North America, where it has become a noxious weed.
Garlic powder is a spice that is derived from dehydrated garlic and used in cooking for flavour enhancement. The process of making garlic powder includes drying and dehydrating the vegetable, then powdering it through machinery or home-based appliances depending on the scale of production. Garlic powder is a common component of spice mix. It is also a common component of seasoned salt.
White onion or Allium cepa are a cultivar of dry onion which have a distinct light and mild flavour profile. Much like red onions, they have a high sugar and low sulphur content, and thus have a relatively short shelf life. White onions are used in a variety of dishes, such as those of Mexican and European origin. Their uses in dishes often relate to their mild nature, they are often included in dishes to provide a light, fresh and sour taste to dishes and are often added uncooked to dishes such as salads.
Penicillium expansum is a psychrophilic blue mold that is common throughout the world in soil. It causes Blue Mold of apples, one of the most prevalent and economically damaging post-harvest diseases of apples.
Stemphylium solani is a plant pathogen fungus in the phylum Ascomycota. It is the causal pathogen for grey leaf spot in tomatoes and leaf blight in alliums and cotton, though a wide range of additional species can serve as hosts. Symptoms include white spots on leaves and stems that progress to sunken red or purple lesions and finally leaf necrosis. S. solani reproduces and spreads through the formation of conidia on conidiophores. The teleomorph name of Stemphyllium is Pleospora though there are no naturally known occurrences of sexual reproduction. Resistant varieties of tomato and cotton are common, though the pathogen remains an important disease in Chinese garlic cultivation.
Pyrenochaeta terrestris is a fungal plant pathogen that infects maize, sweet potatoes, and strawberries. This plant pathogen causes a disease in onion that is commonly called pink root. P. terrestris is also known to infect shallots, garlic, leeks, chives, cantaloupe, carrots, cauliflower, cowpea, cucumbers, eggplants, lima beans, millet, oats, peas, peppers, potatoes, spinach, sugarcane, and tomatoes.
Ditylenchus dipsaci is a plant pathogenic nematode that primarily infects onion and garlic. It is commonly known as the stem nematode, the stem and bulb eelworm, or onion bloat. Symptoms of infection include stunted growth, discoloration of bulbs, and swollen stems. D. dipsaci is a migratory endoparasite that has a five-stage lifecycle and the ability to enter into a dormancy stage. D. dipsaci enters through stomata or plant wounds and creates galls or malformations in plant growth. This allows for the entrance of secondary pathogens such as fungi and bacteria. Management of disease is maintained through seed sanitation, heat treatment, crop rotation, and fumigation of fields. D. dipsaci is economically detrimental because infected crops are unmarketable.
Peronospora destructor is a plant pathogen. It causes downy mildew on leaves of cultivated and wild Allium. Allium cepa is most often affected, while Allium schoenoprasum (chives) and Allium porrum (leek) are only occasionally affected.
Stromatinia cepivora is a fungus in the division Ascomycota. It is the teleomorph of Sclerotium cepivorum, the cause of white rot in onions, garlic, and leeks. The infective sclerotia remain viable in the soil for many years and are stimulated to germinate by the presence of a susceptible crop.
Botrytis allii is a plant pathogen, a fungus that causes neck rot in stored onions and related crops. Its teleomorph is unknown, but other species of Botrytis are anamorphs of Botryotinia species. The species was first described scientifically by Mancel Thornton Munn in 1917.
Penicillium digitatum is a mesophilic fungus found in the soil of citrus-producing areas. It is a major source of post-harvest decay in fruits and is responsible for the widespread post-harvest disease in Citrus fruit known as green rot or green mould. In nature, this necrotrophic wound pathogen grows in filaments and reproduces asexually through the production of conidiophores and conidia. However, P. digitatum can also be cultivated in the laboratory setting. Alongside its pathogenic life cycle, P. digitatum is also involved in other human, animal and plant interactions and is currently being used in the production of immunologically based mycological detection assays for the food industry.
Botrytis squamosa is a fungus that causes leaf blight on onion that is distinctly characterized by the two stages – leaf spotting followed by blighting. The pathogen is an ascomycete that belongs to the family Sclerotiniaceae in the order Helotiales. The lesions start out as whitish streaks and take on a yellow tinge as they mature. They cause yield losses up to 30%. This fungus is endemic to the USA and has also been reported in Europe, Asia, and Australia. Typical management of this disease includes chemical fungicides with significant efforts being made to establish a means of biological control.
Rhizopus stolonifer is commonly known as black bread mold. It is a member of Zygomycota and considered the most important species in the genus Rhizopus. It is one of the most common fungi in the world and has a global distribution although it is most commonly found in tropical and subtropical regions. It is a common agent of decomposition of stored foods. Like other members of the genus Rhizopus, R. stolonifer grows rapidly, mostly in indoor environments.
Onion yellow dwarf virus (OYDV) is a plant virus in the genus Potyvirus that has been identified worldwide and mainly infects species of Allium such as onion, garlic, and leek. The virus causes mild to severe leaf malformation, and bulb reduction up to sixty percent has been observed in garlic.
Leek yellow stripe virus (LYSV) belongs to the genus Potyvirus. It was first detected in leek but also infects garlic and onion worldwide. Economically less important Allium spp., such as Allium angulosum, Allium caeruleum, Allium cyathophorum, Allium nutans, Allium scorodoprasum, Allium senescens subsp. montanum were also found to harbor the virus.
Shallot latent virus (SLV), a species of Carlavirus, was first identified in shallots in Netherlands. The virus particle is elongated, 650 nm in length.
