| Value |
200.5
mg
|
| Organism |
Carob tree Ceratonia siliqua |
| Reference |
Turnbull LA, Santamaria L, Martorell T, Rallo J, Hector A. Seed size variability: from carob to carats. Biol Lett. 2006 Sep 222(3):397-400.PubMed ID17148413
|
| Method |
Collection of seeds. To assess carob seed variability 28 trees from a collection at Sa Granja agricultural research station, Mallorca were sampled. |
| Comments |
This value for female trees. Hermaphrodite seed weight 176+-7.1 mg. The Carob seed is considered to have been used for as a standard weight unit, 24 seeds weighted like one Byzantine gold coin. Availability of tree around Mediterranean contributed to its use as weight. The Carat was standardized as 0.2 g in the year 1907. This research has shown that variability in seed weight of carob is similar to that of seeds of 63 other species of trees (although as seeds become larger there is less variability among them). The ability of humans to visually discriminate between seed weights to a degree of 5% minimized variability and may have led to choice of carob seeds as weight unit. |
| Entered by |
Uri M |
| ID |
103348 |