History and Origin

Lentil(Lens culinaris Medikus) is the oldest pulse crop with remains found alongside human habitation up to 13,000 years BC. Its domestication is equally old and was probably one of the earliest crops domesticated in the Old World. It is mainly grown in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt, Greece, Italy, countries in the Mediterranean region and North America. It is also being cultivated in the Atlantic coast of Spain and Morocco. The crop has a high significance in cereal-based systems because of its nitrogen fixing ability, its high protein seeds for human diet and its straw for animal feed. It is widely used in a range of dishes and reputed to have many uses in traditional medicine. There are a range of wild lentils but L. orientalis is believed to be the progenitor of the cultivated lentil