Eggplant origin

I ate a lot of eggplant dishes from north to south, so where is the origin of eggplant? How was it introduced into China?

Eggplant originated in tropical Asia in India and Thailand. Up to now, there are still wild and related species of eggplant in India, which was introduced into China in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Eggplant is distributed all over the world, with the most cultivated in Asia, accounting for about 74% of the world's total output, followed by Europe, accounting for about 14%. There are eggplant producing areas in north and south of China, such as Hunan, Hubei, Guangxi, Shandong and so on.

It is generally believed that China is the second birthplace of eggplant. According to Ji Han's botanical work "the vegetation of the South", there are eggplant trees in South China, which is the earliest record of eggplant in China. The "Picture Classic Materia Medica" written by Su Song in the Song Dynasty recorded that in addition to purple eggplant, white eggplant and water eggplant, rattan eggplant was also planted in the south of the Yangtze River at that time.

Eggplant spread to Africa in the Middle Ages, was introduced into Europe in the 13th century, was widely cultivated in southern Europe in the 16th century, spread to European leaves in the 17th century, and then spread to America.