Abstract:
Common names: Groundnut or peanut in English, pistache in French, mani in Spanish, amondoim in Portuguese, huasheng in Chinese, mungphali in Hindi, ful sudani in Arabic.
Other not so common names: Monkey nuts, goober nuts, earth nuts.
First written reference to groundnut: Oldest specimens found in Peru dated to 7600 years ago; First written reference in 1535 by Gonzalo Hernandez de Oviedo y Valdes chronicles of travels in Americas; Crop consumed mainly by lowly men and boys and slaves; Used for hogging up to 1930s in the USA; Research efforts of Dr George Washington Carver (credited with inventing 300 different uses) during early 1900 made it an important commercial crop in the southern USA.