The claim that the ‘classic’ eight ‘founder crop’ package (einkorn wheat, emmer wheat, barley, lentil, pea, chickpea, bitter vetch, and flax) underlying the emergence of agriculture in the Near East is a relic of a larger number of domesticated species is addressed. The ‘lost’ crops concept relies on the idea that additional taxa were at certain points in time and in certain locations genuine crops, which were later abandoned. The issue is highly relevant to the debate concerning mono- versus polyphyletic domestication, because if there were numerous ‘false starts’ that were subsequently lost, this implies that plant domestication occurred over a protracted time period, and across a wide geographic range. Different criteria were used for declaring those taxa as ‘lost’ crops, including, but not limited to (i) identification in archaeobotanical assemblages of grains from species which are not known as crops at present; (ii) identification of such grains in what is interpreted to have been Neolithic storage facilities; and (iii) recent botanical observations on populations of crop wild relatives in disturbed habitats. The evidence for four presumed ‘lost’ crops (wild oat, rambling vetch, rye, and wild black lentil) and the broad bean is evaluated, and discussed in light of data on Croatian and Israeli wild pea, and Moroccan wild lentil in disturbed habitats. Based on present knowledge, the broad bean might emerge as a founder crop (without an identified wild progenitor). The same may hold true for rye, which was never lost since its adoption in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period in Anatolia. In the remaining three cases, there are alternative, more likely, explanations for the archaeological finds or the recent botanical observations rather than ‘lost’ domestication episodes.

Background: Undernutrition during childhood is a common disorder in the developing countries, however most research has focussed much on its treatment rather than its prevention.Objective: We investigated the potential of using chickpeas in infant follow-on formula production against the requirements of WHO/FAO on complementary foods and EU regulations on follow-on formula.Methods: Chickpeas were germinated for 72 hours followed by boiling, drying and dehulling in order to minimise associated anti-nutrition factors. Saccharifying enzymes were used to hydrolyse starch to maltose and the resulting flours were analysed for their protein content and amino acid profile.Results: The protein content (percentage) increased from 16.66 ± 0.35 and 20.24 ± 0.50 to 20.00 ± 0.15 and 21.98 ± 0.80 for the processed desi and kabuli cultivar compared to raw chickpeas, respectively (P < 0.05). There was insignificant change (P = 0.05) in amino acid profile following processing and the resulting flour was found to meet the amino acid requirements of WHO/FAO protein reference for 0–24 month’s children.Conclusion: The designed chickpea based infant follow-on formula meets the WHO/FAO requirements on complementary foods and also the EU regulations on follow-on formula with minimal addition of oils, minerals and vitamins. It uses chickpea as a common source of carbohydrate and protein hence making it more economical and affordable for the developing countries without compromising the nutrition quality.

Productivity of grain crops in semi‐arid environments is often affected by drought, which is likely to increase due to predicted climate changes. Wild pea (Pisum fulvum Sibth. & Smith, Pf) accessions sampled across its ecological amplitude in Israel (350–850 mm annual precipitation) were used to assess the genetic diversity for drought responses. We hypothesized that native species evolving under Eastern Mediterranean climate carry adaptive traits to cope with drought stress. Accessions were classified according to single‐nucleotide polymorphism variation pattern and habitat ecogeographic parameters. Significant differences were found between the accession groups, but grouping in both systems did not match. Subsequently, 52 Pf accessions and three domesticated pea (P. sativum L.) genotypes were evaluated during 2 yr under well‐watered (∼580 mm) and water‐limited (∼340 mm) treatments. Total dry matter, grain yield, harvest index, and average grain weight were higher in domesticated pea than wild Pf; however several Pf accessions exhibited lower drought susceptibility indices (i.e., greater stability across environments) than domesticated genotypes. Of special interest are a number of Pf genotypes in which low susceptibility to water stress was coupled with relatively high productivity. The sampling habitats of those low susceptibility–high productivity accessions are characterized by mild (400–530 mm) annual precipitation. Further sampling and evaluation of Pf from such locations may improve our understanding of pea drought adaptation and yield physiology.

The harvesting method of wild and cultivated cereals has long been recognized as an important factor in the emergence of domesticated non-shattering ear genotypes. This study aimed to quantify the effects of spike brittleness and threshability on threshing time and efficiency in emmer wheat, and to evaluate the implications of post-harvest processes on domestication of cereals in the Near East. A diverse collection of tetraploid wheat genotypes, consisting of Triticum turgidum ssp. dicoccoides - the wild progenitor of domesticated wheat - traditional landraces, modern cultivars (T. turgidum ssp. durum) and 150 recombinant (wild × modern) inbred lines, was used in replicated controlled threshing experiments to quantify the effects of spike brittleness and threshability on threshing time and efficiency. The transition from a brittle hulled wild phenotype to non-brittle hulled phenotype (landraces) was associated with an approx. 30 % reduction in threshing time, whereas the transition from the latter to non-brittle free-threshing cultivars was associated with an approx. 85 % reduction in threshing time. Similar trends were obtained with groups of recombinant inbred lines showing extreme phenotypes of brittleness and threshability. In tetraploid wheat, both non-brittle spike and free-threshing are labour-saving traits that increase the efficiency of post-harvest processing, which could have been an incentive for rapid domestication of the Near Eastern cereals, thus refuting the recently proposed hypothesis regarding extra labour associated with the domesticated phenotype (non-brittle spike) and its presumed role in extending the domestication episode time frame.