sugarcane, tall tropical perennials (species of Saccharum, chiefly S. officinarum) of the family Gramineae (grass grass, any plant of the family Gramineae, an important and widely distributed group of vascular plants, having an extraordinary range of adaptation. Numbering approximately 600 genera and 9,000 species, the grasses form the climax vegetation (see ecology ) in great
..... Click the link for more information. family), probably cultivated in their native Asia from prehistoric times. Sugarcane somewhat resembles corn and sorghum, with a large terminal panicle and a noded stalk. In biblical times, one of the known sweetening agents in the world was honey. It was not until the Middle Ages that the "Indian honey-bearing reed" was introduced to the Middle East and became accessible to Europe, where sugar was sold from druggists' shelves as a costly medicinal or luxury. Later, sugarcane plants were introduced by Spanish and Portuguese explorers of the 15th and 16th cent. throughout the Old and New World tropics, and the large cane industry rapidly took shape. Today, sugarcane and the sugar beet (see beet beet, biennial or annual root vegetable of the family Chenopodiaceae ( goosefoot family). The beet (Beta vulgaris) has been cultivated since pre-Christian times.
..... Click the link for more information. ), a temperate plant developed as a commercial sugar source c.1800, are the only two major economic sources of sugar sugar, compound of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen belonging to a class of substances called carbohydrates . Sugars fall into three groups: the monosaccharides, disaccharides, and trisaccharides.
..... Click the link for more information. . Cuba and India together produce a large percentage of the world's tropical sugar, cane sugar. Cane is harvested by cutting down the plant stalks, which are then pressed several times to extract the juice. The juice is concentrated by evaporation into dark, sticky sugar, often sold locally. Refined sugar, less nourishing as food, is obtained by precipitating out the non-sugar components. Almost pure sucrose sucrose (s
..... Click the link for more information. , it is the main commercial product. Byproducts obtained from sugarcane include molasses molasses, sugar byproduct, the brownish liquid residue left after heat crystallization of sucrose (commercial sugar) in the process of refining. Molasses contains chiefly the uncrystallizable sugars as well as some remnant sucrose.
..... Click the link for more information. , rum rum, spirituous liquor made from fermented sugarcane products. Prepared by fermentation, distillation, and aging, it is made from the molasses and foam that rise to the top of boiled sugarcane juice.
..... Click the link for more information. , alcohol, fuel, livestock feed, and from the stalk residue, paper and wallboard. Sugarcane is classified in the division Magnoliophyta Magnoliophyta (măg'nōlēŏf`ətə)
..... Click the link for more information. , class Liliopsida, order Cyperales, family Poaceae (Gramineae).
Giant, thick, perennial grass (Saccharum officinarum; family Poaceae, or Gramineae), cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide for its sweet sap, a major source of sugar and molasses. The plant grows in clumps of solid stalks with regularly spaced nodes or joints, each with a bud that can be planted for commercial asexual propagation. Graceful, sword-shaped leaves, similar to those of the corn plant, fold in a sheath around the stem. Mature canes may be 10–20 ft (3–6 m) tall and 1–3 in. (2.5–7.5 cm) in diameter. Molasses, the syrup remaining after sugar is crystallized out of the juice, is used in cooking, in making rum, and as feed for farm animals. Residual cane fibre (bagasse) is burned as fuel or used as filler for paper and particleboard.
..... Click the link for more information. family), probably cultivated in their native Asia from prehistoric times. Sugarcane somewhat resembles corn and sorghum, with a large terminal panicle and a noded stalk. In biblical times, one of the known sweetening agents in the world was honey. It was not until the Middle Ages that the "Indian honey-bearing reed" was introduced to the Middle East and became accessible to Europe, where sugar was sold from druggists' shelves as a costly medicinal or luxury. Later, sugarcane plants were introduced by Spanish and Portuguese explorers of the 15th and 16th cent. throughout the Old and New World tropics, and the large cane industry rapidly took shape. Today, sugarcane and the sugar beet (see beet beet, biennial or annual root vegetable of the family Chenopodiaceae ( goosefoot family). The beet (Beta vulgaris) has been cultivated since pre-Christian times.
..... Click the link for more information. ), a temperate plant developed as a commercial sugar source c.1800, are the only two major economic sources of sugar sugar, compound of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen belonging to a class of substances called carbohydrates . Sugars fall into three groups: the monosaccharides, disaccharides, and trisaccharides.
..... Click the link for more information. . Cuba and India together produce a large percentage of the world's tropical sugar, cane sugar. Cane is harvested by cutting down the plant stalks, which are then pressed several times to extract the juice. The juice is concentrated by evaporation into dark, sticky sugar, often sold locally. Refined sugar, less nourishing as food, is obtained by precipitating out the non-sugar components. Almost pure sucrose sucrose (s
..... Click the link for more information. , it is the main commercial product. Byproducts obtained from sugarcane include molasses molasses, sugar byproduct, the brownish liquid residue left after heat crystallization of sucrose (commercial sugar) in the process of refining. Molasses contains chiefly the uncrystallizable sugars as well as some remnant sucrose.
..... Click the link for more information. , rum rum, spirituous liquor made from fermented sugarcane products. Prepared by fermentation, distillation, and aging, it is made from the molasses and foam that rise to the top of boiled sugarcane juice.
..... Click the link for more information. , alcohol, fuel, livestock feed, and from the stalk residue, paper and wallboard. Sugarcane is classified in the division Magnoliophyta Magnoliophyta (măg'nōlēŏf`ətə)
..... Click the link for more information. , class Liliopsida, order Cyperales, family Poaceae (Gramineae).
Bibliography
See A. C. Barnes, The Sugar Cane (2d ed. 1973); B. Albert and A. Graves, ed., World Sugar Economy in War (1988).
sugarcane
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Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum)
(credit: Ray Manley—Shostal Assoc.)
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