Hi Kevin,

 The study is very interesting. I too look forward for answers to your question. May be nutritional anthropologists will have some answer for you. All the Best.

Judith Carney's work might have some leads on this. 

http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/geog/downloads/594/33.pdf

It´s not much, but there´s some information here: 

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/resources-rx/files/chapter-5-diet-and-nutrition-19109.pdf

The anthropologist Jack Weatherford mentions okra in a couple of places in his book, Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World.   I suspect it might also be in his book about food called Native Roots--which deals more explicitly with food--but that book isn't searchable online. 

Thanks everyone. I am entangles in this idea of examining Okra since I am from Memphis. I now realize that it is a really understudied ingredient that is interestingly associated with the African diaspora. I have an article written by Robert Voeks (1997) and that has a little interesting information but there is really not that much on the topic at all. I wonder if black eyed peas suffered the same fate. Thank again!

Dear Kevin,

I can give you an article from Europe. He refers to use along with its ochre in Musterian. Also, I will give a few works, can find on Researchgates Marin Carciumaru.

http://www.annalesfsu.ro/siteeng/tome_XI_no.1.htm

MARIN CÂRCIUMARU, MARIE-HELENE MONCEL, MIRCEA ANGHELINU, RADU CÂRCIUMARU, 2002, The Cioarei-Borosteni Cave (Carpathian Mountains, Romania): Middle Paleolithic finds and technological analysis of the lithic assemblages, Antiquity, vol. 76, no. 293, september 2002, p. 681-690;

MARIN CÂRCIUMARU, MINODORA ŢUŢUIANU-CÂRCIUMARU, 2009, L’ocre et les récipients pour ocre de la grotte Cioarei, village Boroşteni, commune Peştişani, dép. De Gorj, Roumanie, Annales d’Université „Valahia” Targovişte, Section d’Archéologie et d’Histoire, Tome XI, Nr. 1, p. 7-19.

MARIN CÂRCIUMARU, ELENA-CRISTINA NITU, OVIDIU CÎRSTINA, 2014, A geode painted with ochre by the Neanderthal man, Comptes Rendus Palevol, 14, p. 31-41.

MARIN CARCIUMARU, MINODORA TUTUIANU-CARCIUMARU, 2012, The Oldest Snail (Lithoglyphus naticoides) necklace discovered in Romania in the Gravettian III stratum of Poiana Ciresului-Piatra Neamt [25.760±160 –27.321±234 B.P. (31.969 ka)], Annales d’Université Valahia Târgovişte, Section d’Archéologie et d’Histoire, Tome XIV, Numéro 1, p. 19-42, ISSN 1584-1855; ISSN (online): 2285–3669.

MARIN CÂRCIUMARU, IULIANA LAZĂR, ELENA-CRISTINA NIŢU, MINODORA ŢUŢUIANU-CÂRCIUMARU, 2010, Bivalve fosile din specia Congeria (Mytilopsis) subcarinata subcarinata din stratul epigavetian de la Poiana Cireșului (Piatra Neamț) și semnificația lor simbolică, in Vasile. Chirica și George Bodi (Editori), Arta antropomorfă feminină în preistoria spațiului Carpato-Nistrean, Editura Pim Iași, p. 109-119.

I understand Thomas Jefferson tried to introduce okra to the French when he was ambassador to France. He may have written about it; he was so prolific.  Also, I understand the slaves brought the seeds over by hiding them in the folds of their ears. Good luck....the history of okra may be as fascinating as the history of the color red.

A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire

Apr 25, 2006

by Amy Butler Greenfield

see the current issue of American Scientist (July-August 2015):                                "African Names for American Plants," by Tinde R. van Andel (pp. 268-275, and especially the sidebar on p. 271)