Bhendi is grown throughout the tropical and warm temperate
regions of the world for its fibrous pods full of round, white seeds,
which, when picked young, are eaten as a vegetable.
Bhendi is normally eaten young as it gets very woody
when mature.
It is one of the most heat- and drought-tolerant vegetables
in the world; once established, it can survive severe drought conditions.
The major bhendi (okra) producing states are Uttar Pradesh,
Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa, Assam, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
Bhendi(Okra) apparently originated from the present-day Ethiopia,
the mountainous or plateau portion of Eritrea, and the eastern, higher
part of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.
The routes by which okra was taken from Ethiopia to North Africa,
the eastern Mediterranean, Arabia, and India, and when, are by no means
certain.
Although it has been commonly cultivated in Egypt for many hundreds
of years, no sign of it has ever been found in any of the ancient monuments
or relics of old Egypt.
Since the Spanish Moors and the Egyptians of the 12th and 13th centuries
used an Arab word for okra, it probably was taken into Egypt by the
Moslems from the East who conquered Egypt in the 7th century.
From Arabia okra was spread over North Africa, completely around
the Mediterranean, and eastward.
The absence of any ancient Indian names for it suggests that it reached
India after the beginning of the Christian Era.
History
