Peanuts: Small but with great properties

Islamabad

Come cold winter months, peanuts can be found in plenty either in dry fruit shops or hand drawn trolleys standing by the roadside in most markets. Heaps of nuts that have already been roasted are kept warm with a coal fire in a ceramic cooking pot sitting in the middle of the heap, while the man keeps turning then around for an even distribution of heat.

While all kinds of peanuts taste good, there is nothing like sitting in front of a fire and shelling peanuts one by one then popping them in your mouth! Like all tasty things, peanuts can be addictive and there is a saying that goes something like this, 'If you can eat one peanut and stop then you have a strong character!' Dry-roasted peanuts are the best but boiled and fried ones also taste good.

Rolling down the road on his makeshift vehicle fashioned from the lower body of a rickshaw, this man is carrying bags of unroasted peanuts for a whole rate price of Rs150 per kilogram - but you have to buy at least five kilograms to avail of this rate. Out of curiosity I asked him if he had come all the way from Attock, as his sign says his peanuts are from there, but it turned out they had been sent by truck and then he and other vendors distributed the bags among themselves. He was going to a busy market to set up shop and hopefully he was successful.

Besides being delicious, peanuts are very useful little nuts. Information on them says they are used to help fight malnutrition. High-protein, high-energy, and high-nutrient peanut-based pastes have been developed to be used as a therapeutic food to aid in famine relief. The World Health Organisation, Unicef, Project Peanut Butter, and Doctors Without Borders have used these products to help save malnourished children in developing countries. They can be used like other legumes and grains to make a lactose-free, milk-like beverage, peanut milk, which is promoted in Africa as a way to reduce malnutrition among children.

The protein cake (oilcake meal) residue from oil processing is used as an animal feed and as a soil fertilizer. Raw peanuts are also widely sold as a garden bird feed. Peanut plant tops are used for hay. They have a variety of industrial uses. Paint, varnish, lubricating oil, leather dressings, furniture polish, insecticides, and nitroglycerin are made from peanut oil. Soap is made from saponified oil, and many cosmetics contain peanut oil and its derivatives. The protein portion is used in the manufacture of some textile fibers. Their shells are used in the manufacture of plastic, wallboard, abrasives, fuel, cellulose and glue.

On another note, 'Peanuts' is one of the most popular comic strips read by children and grownups alike. Also because they have a lower price tag, 'Sold for peanuts' is often used for anything that is sold at a low price.