Sorghum

Sorghum was domesticated from its wild ancestor more than 5,000 years ago in what is today Sudan. The newest evidence comes from an archaeological site near Kassala in eastern Sudan, dating from 3500 to 3000 BC, and is associated with the neolithic Butana Group culture.[4] It was the staple food of the kingdom of Alodia.[5]

Sorghum is in the grass family, Poaceae, in the subfamily Panicoideae, in the tribe Andropogoneae – the same as maize (Zea mays), big bluestem (Andropogon gerardi), and sugarcane (Saccharum spp.).

Species

Accepted species recorded include:[6]

West African market

A plate of sorghum grain

• Sorghum amplum – northwestern Australia
• Sorghum angustum – Queensland
• Sorghum arundinaceum – Africa, Indian Subcontinent, Madagascar, islands of the western Indian Ocean
• Sorghum bicolor – cultivated sorghum, often individually called sorghum, also known as durra, jowari, or milo. Native to Sahel region of Africa; naturalized in many places
• Sorghum brachypodum – Northern Territory of Australia
• Sorghum bulbosum – Northern Territory, Western Australia
• Sorghum burmahicum – Thailand, Myanmar
• Sorghum controversum – India
• Sorghum × drummondii – Sahel and West Africa
• Sorghum ecarinatum – Northern Territory, Western Australia
• Sorghum exstans – Northern Territory of Australia
• Sorghum grande – Northern Territory, Queensland
• Sorghum halepense – Johnson grass – North Africa, islands of eastern Atlantic, southern Asia from Lebanon to Vietnam; naturalized in East Asia, Australia, the Americas
• Sorghum interjectum – Northern Territory, Western Australia
• Sorghum intrans – Northern Territory, Western Australia
• Sorghum laxiflorum – Philippines, Lesser Sunda Islands, Sulawesi, New Guinea, northern Australia
• Sorghum leiocladum – Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria
• Sorghum macrospermum – Northern Territory of Australia
• Sorghum matarankense – Northern Territory, Western Australia
• Sorghum nitidum – East Asia, Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, New Guinea, Micronesia
• Sorghum plumosum – Australia, New Guinea, Indonesia
• Sorghum propinquum – China, Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, New Guinea, Christmas Island, Micronesia, Cook Islands
• Sorghum purpureosericeum – Sahel from Mali to Tanzania; Yemen, Oman, India
• Sorghum stipoideum – Northern Territory, Western Australia
• Sorghum timorense – Lesser Sunda Islands, Maluku, New Guinea, northern Australia
• Sorghum trichocladum – Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras
• Sorghum versicolor – eastern + southern Africa from Ethiopia to Namibia; Oman
• Sorghum virgatum – dry regions from Senegal to the Levant.

Agrobacterium transformation can be used on this genus,[7] as shown in a 2018 report of such a transformation system.[7] A 2013 study developed and validated an SNP array for molecular breeding.[8][9]

Sorghum production – 2021
Country	(Millions of tonnes)
United States	11.4
India	4.8
Ethiopia	4.4
Mexico	4.4
Argentina	3.3
China	3.0
World	61.4
Source: FAOSTAT of the United Nations[10]

Seventeen of the 25 species are native to Australia,[11][12][13][14] with the range of some extending to Africa, Asia, Mesoamerica, and certain islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.[15][16]

In 2021, world production of sorghum was 61 million tonnes, led by the United States with 19% of the total (table). India, Ethiopia, and Mexico were secondary producers.

In the early stages of plant growth, some sorghum species may contain levels of hydrogen cyanide, hordenine, and nitrates lethal to grazing animals.[17] Plants stressed by drought or heat can also contain toxic levels of cyanide and nitrates at later stages in growth.[18]

The grain is edible and nutritious. It can be eaten raw when young and milky, but has to be boiled or ground into flour when mature.[19]

Sorghum cultivation has been linked by archeological research to ancient Sudan around 6,000 to 7,000 BP.[20] One species, S. bicolor,[21] native to Africa with many cultivated forms,[22] is a common crop worldwide, used for food (in the form of grain or sorghum syrup), animal fodder, the production of alcoholic beverages, and biofuels.

In Nigeria, the pulverized red leaf-sheaths of sorghum have been used to dye leather, and in Algeria, sorghum has been used to dye wool.[23]

Most varieties of sorghum are drought- and heat-tolerant, nitrogen-efficient,[26] and are grown particularly in arid and semi-arid regions where the grain is one of the staples for poor and rural people. These varieties are forage in many tropical regions. S. bicolor is a food crop in Africa, Central America, and South Asia, and is the fifth most common cereal crop grown in the world.[27][28]

• Watson, Andrew M. (1983). Agricultural Innovation in the Early Islamic World: The Diffusion of Crops and Farming Techniques, 700–1100. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-24711-X.

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• Sorghum

• "Sorghum" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 25 (11th ed.). 1911.
• "Sorghum and millets in human nutrition" FAO Report (1995) Archived 2018-10-01 at the Wayback Machine