ABSTRACT
Throughout history, mankind has met its food needs with only 5,000 plant species, representing 1% of the world flora, and a big nuclei of human population depend essentially on three cereals (wheat, rice and corn) and one tuber (potato) for subsistence [1]. As time has elapsed, our dependence on a reduced group of species has increased and the selection and breeding processes have been concentrated on the main crops (wheat, rice, maize, potato, soybean, barley among others) and some crops, such as the pseudo cereals, have been neglected, notwithstanding that once, in the history of ancient pre-hispanic cultures, they had a predominant role as staple foods. Nowadays, when the search for alternative crops with such attributes as high nutritional value, hardiness and low demand of agrochemicals is increasing, these under-utilized crops are being rediscovered as super crops of the future [2].
