Arrowroot

A tropical tuber crop (Maranta arundinacea) native to the Americas, cultivated since pre-Columbian times and long valued for the easily digestible starch extracted from its rhizomes, historically used as an invalid and infant food. The crop spread with colonial trade to the West Indies, where Saint Vincent became a major historical center of production and export, and to parts of Africa and Southeast Asia. Arrowroot starch remains used today as a thickening agent in cooking and in some specialty and gluten-free food products, though it has been substantially displaced in industrial use by cheaper starches such as corn starch.