Onion: art, science and philosophy

According to the 4th Edition of Kamus Dewan, bawang in Malay language or onion is a type of plant whose bulbs are eaten as shown in Figure 1. Onions, with the scientific name Allium sp, are one of the most important elements in cooking. There are numerous onion species such as yellow and red onions (A. cepa), shallots (A. ascalonicum Hort.), leek (A. ampeloprasum) and garlic (A. sativum L.). They are also very important food resources throughout the world (Soininen et al., 2014). Meanwhile, the word “membawang” is defined as talking about other people's gossips and this word has become a common phrase among Malaysians (Rosdi, 2018). Therefore, this article discusses the morphology of “bawang” or onion, and the term “membawang” as used among Malaysians in terms of artistic representation, biological activity and human life philosophy that could be associated with onions.