Chicory

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Common Chicory

Common chicory (Cichorium intybus)

Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Magnoliopsida
Order:	Asterales
Family:	Asteraceae
Tribe:	Cichorieae
Genus:	Cichorium
Species:	C. intybus

Binomial name

Cichorium intybus
L.

Flower of Cichorium intybus

Common chicory (Cichorium intybus) is a bushy perennial herb with blue or lavender flowers. It grows as a wild plant on roadsides in its native Europe, and in North America, where it has become naturalized. It is grown for its leaves, or for the roots, which are baked, ground, and used as a coffee substitute and additive. Common chicory is also known as blue sailors, succory, and coffeeweed.

1 Leaf chicory
2 Root chicory
3 Herbal use
4 Use and toxicity
5 History
6 References
7 See also
8 External links

[edit] Leaf chicory

Chicory may be grown for its leaves, eaten raw as a salad, when the plant is known as endive, radicchio, Belgian endive, French endive or witloof.

The leaves of many varieties are eaten green, but some are grown in complete darkness to keep the new leaves tender and pale, forming chicory tips.

Although leaf chicory is often called "endive", true endive (Cichorium endivia) is a different species.

[edit] Root chicory

Root chicory (Cichorium intybus var. sativum) has been in cultivation in Europe as a coffee substitute for a long time. The roots are baked, ground, and used as a coffee substitute and additive, especially in the Mediterranean region (where the plant is native), although its use as a coffee additive is also very popular in India, parts of Southeast Asia and the American South, particularly in New Orleans.

Around 1970 it was found that the root contains up to 20% inulin, a polysaccharide similar to starch. Since then, new strains have been created, giving root chicory an inulin content comparable to that of sugar beet (around 600 dt/ha). Inulin is mainly found in the plant family Asteraceae as a storage carbohydrate (for example Jerusalem artichoke, dahlia etc.). It is used as a sweetener in the food industry (with a sweetening power 30% higher than that of sucrose) and is sometimes added to yogurts as a prebiotic. Inulin can be converted to fructose and glucose through hydrolysis.

Chicory, with sugar beet and rye was used as an ingredient of the East German Mischkaffee (mixed coffee), introduced during the "coffee crisis" of 1976-9.

Some beer brewers use roasted chicory to add flavor to their stouts.

[edit] Herbal use

Chicory (especially the flower) was used as a treatment in Germany, and is recorded in many books as an ancient German treatment for everyday ailments. It is variously used as a tonic and appetite stimulant, and as a treatment for gallstones, gastro-enteritis, sinus problems and cuts and bruises. (Howard M. 1987)

[edit] Use and toxicity

Long-term use of chicory as a coffee substitute has been shown to damage human retinal tissue, with dimming of vision over time and other long term effects.^{[citation needed]} Although small amounts of root chicory consumed medicinally or as a seasoning can be healthy and/or harmless, root chicory contains volatile oils that can be metabolized in the liver and digestive tract into toxic by-products that damage retinal nerve cells and cause dimming of vision if regularly consumed in large quantities as a coffee substitute. Root chicory contains volatile oils similar to those found in plants in the related genus Tanacetum which includes Tansy, and is likewise effective at eliminating intestinal worms. All parts of the plant contain these volatile oils, with the majority of the toxic components concentrated in the plant's root. ^[1]

Chicory is well known for its toxicity to internal parasites. Studies indicate that ingestion of chicory by farm animals results in reduction of worm burdens, which has prompted its widespread use as a forage supplement. There are only a few major companies active in research, development, and production of chicory varieties and selections. Most of them are in New Zealand.

[edit] History

Lettuce and chicory output in 2005

The chicory plant is one of the earliest cited in recorded literature. Horace mentions it in reference to his own diet, which he describes as very simple: "Me pascunt olivae, me cichorea, me malvae" ("As for me, olives, endives, and mallows provide sustenance").^[2] Lord Monboddo describes the plant in 1779^[3] as the "chicoree", which the French cultivate as a pot herb. In the Napoleonic Era in France, chicory frequently appeared as either an adulterant in coffee or a coffee substitute; this practice also became common in the United States and the United Kingdom e.g. in England during the second world war and in Camp Coffee, a coffee and chicory essence which has been on sale since 1885.

In the United States chicory root has long been used as a substitute for coffee in prisons.^[4]

Chicory is an ingredient in typical Roman recipes, generally fried with garlic and red pepper, with its bitter and spicy taste, often together with meat or potatoes. FAO reports that in 2005, China and the USA were the top producers of lettuce and chicory.

Chicory is also mentioned in certain sericulture (silk-growing) texts. It is said that the primary caretaker of the silkworms, the "silkworm mother" should not eat or even touch it.

The chicory flower is often seen as inspiration for the Romantic concept of the Blue Flower. It was also believed to be able to open locked doors, according to European folklore.^[5]

[edit] References

^ Edible and Medicinal Plants of the West, Gregory L. Tilford, ISBN 0-87842-359-1
^ Horace, Odes 31, ver 15, ca 30 BC
^ Letter from Monboddo to John Hope, 29 April, 1779; reprinted by William Knight 1900 ISBN 1-85506-207-0
^ (a) Delaney, John H. "New York (State). Dept. of Efficiency and Economy Annual Report". Albany New York, 1915, p. 673. Accessed via Google Books.
(b) "Prison Talk" website; Kentucky section: http://www.prisontalk.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-173368.html.
^ Howard, Michael. Traditional Folk Remedies (Century, 1987), p.120.