Quinoa Botany, Production and Uses

Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) is a pseudocereal native to the Andean regions of South America. Quinoa is one of the oldest crops of the American continent. Archeological findings in northern Chile have shown that quinoa was used prior to 3000 ?'. in Ayacucho, Peru, evidence has been obtained that quinoa was cultivated there before 5000 ?'. The quinoa plant was widely cultivated in the whole Andrean region, in Columbia, Equador, Peru, Bolivia, and Chile, before the Spanish conquest. However, the habits and traditional foods of natives were replaced with foreign crops such as wheat and barley.