Tapioca

Tapioca (Portuguese pronunciation: [tapiˈɔkɐ]) is a starch extracted from cassava root (Manihot esculenta). This species is native to the North Region of Brazil, but spread throughout the South American continent. The plant was carried by Portuguese and Spanish explorers to most of the West Indies, and continents of Africa and Asia, including the Philippines and Taiwan. It is now cultivated worldwide.

A staple food in many world regions, tapioca is used as a thickening agent in various foods.

Etymology and origin

In Brazil, cassava is called mandioca or aipim while its starch is called tapioca, a word derived from the word tipi'óka, its name in the Tupí language spoken by natives when the Portuguese first arrived in the Northeast Region of Brazil. This Tupí word refers to the process by which the cassava starch is made edible.

Production

Tapioca is one of the purest forms of starch food, and the production varies from region to region.

The cassava plant has either red or green branches with blue spindles on them. The root of the green-branched variant requires treatment to remove linamarin, a cyanogenic glycoside occurring naturally in the plant, which otherwise may be converted into cyanide.Konzo (also called mantakassa) is a paralytic disease associated with several weeks of almost exclusive consumption of insufficiently processed bitter cassava.