Wild onion

The Colchium Autumnale is a wild flower found in meadows and woodlands. It s a perennial herb in the lily family which grows from a solid bulb that can unfortunately be mistaken for a wild onion. The rapier like leaves grow about a foot high, and in the early fall one or two leafless stalks sprout from the bulb each stalk produces a single white-to-purplish-pink flower that resembles a crocus. 

Onion chemistry is complex and fascinating. We have been intrigued by this vegetable ever since our prehistoric ancestors gathered and cooked wild onions. By the time of the First Egyptian Dynasty, five thousand years ago, onions were widely consumed, prized not only for their flavor but also for their supposed medicinal properties. 

The lachrymatory factor in onion (thiopropanal-S-oxide) is considered to come from the S-l-propenyl-cysteine sulfoxide precursor [40]. Thiopropanal-S-oxide (CH3-CH2-CH=S=0) is unstable reacting with pyruvate to form propanol, 2-methyl pentanal and 2-methyl pent-2-enal [41]. It is of interest that no lachrymatory properties were found in 25 species of wild onions [42]. This would suggest that the 1-propenyl precursor may be absent from the wild onion. 

Freeman, G.G., N. Mossadeghi, Influence of sulfate nutrition on the flavour component of garlic Allium sativum) and wild onion Allium vineale), J. ScL FoodAgric., 22, p. 330, 1971. 

Fig. 4.8 Navajo Dye Chart ( Ella Myers). Toh-Atin Gallery, Durango, Colorado. Key row 1 scarlet bugler, afterbath from black dye, Brigham tea, brown onion skin, penstemon, sage brush row 2 juniper mistletoe, red onion skin, Indian paint brush, rubber plant row 3 alder bark, Navajo tea, wild black berries, rabbit brush row 4 snake weed, purple larkspur, wild onion, Gambel oak bark row 5 sumac, pinon pitch and ocher, yellow sweet clover, blue flowered lupine, globemallow, goldenrod, grey chamiso...

Source Methanol occurs naturally in small-flowered oregano (5 to 45 ppm) (Baser et al., 1991), Guveyoto shoots (700 ppb) (Baser et al., 1992), orange juice (0.8 to 80 ppm), onion bulbs, pineapples, black currant, spearmint, apples, jimsonweed leaves, soybean plants, wild parsnip, blackwood, soursop, cauliflower, caraway, petitgrain, bay leaves, tomatoes, parsley leaves, and geraniums (Duke, 1992). 

Owusu-Bennoah, E. Wild, A. (1979). Autoradiography of the depletion zone of phosphate around onion roots in the presence of vesicular arbuscular mycorrhiza. New Phytologist, 82, 133-40. 

Allicin is absent in Allium cepa preparations. Onions contain cepaenes and different thiosulphinates in comparLson to garlic and wild garlic. 

Wild garlics, onions (though weaker they possess many of the same actions), and (within a certain range) grapefruit seed extract (see individual entry). 

Sulfldic (hydrogen sulfide) (sulfur) H2S Rotten eggs, sewer drains, mercaptans, onions/garlic. 0.004 (<4ppb) 0.004 Wild yeast, Zymomonas... 

E. Block, S. Naganathan, D. Putman, and S. H. Zhao, Allium chemistry HPLC analysis of thiosulfinates from onion, garlic, wild garlic (Ramsoms), leek, scallion, shallot, elephant (great-headed) garlic, chive, and Chinese chive, J. Agric. Food Chem. 40 2418 (1992). 

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