ABSTRACT
Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.), pronounced KEEN-wah, is part of the class Dicotyledoneae and belongs to the Chenopodiaceae family. About 250 species come under the genus Chenopodium. Quinoa is the seed of the C. quinoa plant; botanically, it is not considered a grain and is thus referred to as a pseudo-grain or simply a false grain, with the crops categorized as pseudocereals. Other crops which belong to the pseudocereals are the chenopods, amaranths and buckwheat [1]. It is an allotetraploid species with a chromosome number that is 2n = 4x = 36 because of the random hybridisation between two diploid species of Chenopodium millions of years ago, followed by chromosome doubling [2, 3]. It has a flat or oval-shaped seed, pale yellow in colour, but other varieties have seeds of a red or black colour. Quinoa has gained worldwide recognition due to its versatility to flourish in any environmental conditions and its great nutritional and functional qualities. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, in its 37th session of the general conference, declared 2013 the International Year of Quinoa.
