Common horseradish
.Common horseradish is a well-known perennial herbaceous plant from the cruciferous family, up to 90 cm tall, with long fleshy roots, thin lateral spines and large rooted leaves. The stem is erect, branched, furrowed. Flowers are white, in sparse elongated clusters. Common horseradish blooms in May - June.
Widespread in the wild in the middle zone of the European part of the former USSR, in the North Caucasus. Common horseradish grows in wet places and along riverbanks. Cultivated as a food and ornamental plant.
Horseradish roots harvested in the fall are used.
Chemical composition
.Horseradish roots contain glycoside sinigrin, which when broken down produces allyl mustard oil and lysozyme, which has bactericidal action, vitamin C (Chopra et al., 1956). Allylic mustard oil accounts for the pungent smell and flavor of horseradish. In the leaves ascorbic acid - 526 mg%, in the roots - 171 mg%, phytoncides, enzyme myrosin, allyl mustard essential oil are found.
Action and application
.In the scientific medicine of the former USSR, common horseradish has not been used for medicinal purposes.
In Bulgaria, horseradish roots in small doses are used as an appetite stimulant and digestion, increasing the secretion of digestive glands means, and is also recommended for gout and rheumatism as a good diuretic and catarrhal inflammation of the respiratory tract.
In Indian medicine, horseradish roots are used as a stimulant, diuretic, and distraction for sciatic nerve inflammation. They are the official raw material in France.
In domestic folk medicine, fresh roots and squeezed juice from them are used as a digestion-improving, anti-cinching, diuretic and expectorant. The leaves are also used as an anti-scurvy agent. In the grated form of horseradish roots are used externally as a remedy, distracting and irritating the skin, which is as strong as mustard.
Allyl mustard oil has a sharply pronounced local action, causes skin hyperemia and burning pain, with prolonged action can cause burns and gangrene. Its vapors cause severe coughing and tearing. Taken orally in small doses, it increases gastrointestinal secretion and stimulates the appetite. In large doses of horseradish can cause severe gastroenteritis.
Horseradish roots are widely used in cooking.
Cicory common
.Common chicory is a perennial herbaceous plant from the family of Complexaceae, with a fleshy root and erect stem, 30-120 cm high. Leaves are pinnately pinnate, gathered in a rosette; stem leaves are regular, sessile, lanceolate. The corms sit singly at the ends of branches, and two or three at a time in the axils of leaves. Flowers are tongue-shaped, with blue, less often pink or white corolla. Common chicory blooms from July through September. It's a good mellifer. Gives a lot of nectar and pollen (Fig. 83).
:fig1:
Widespread in the European part of the former USSR, Western Siberia to Altai, Central Asia, Caucasus. Common chicory grows wild along the edges of roads, near ditches, in weedy places. Cultivated as a food plant.
Roots and inflorescences of wild chicory are used. The cultivated varieties are not suitable because they have much less bitter substances. Dried roots have no odor, their taste is bitter.
Chemical composition
.Chicory roots contain inulin, easily soluble in hot and difficult in cold water (inulin content in roots of wild plants - up to 40%, in cultivated plants - up to 61%); glycoside intibin bitter taste, tannins, ascorbic acid (15.8 mg%), sugars, vitamin B1, choline and others. Chicory glycoside found in flowers, inulin, ascorbic and cichoric acids in leaves; inulin and protocate-quinic aldehyde in seeds. The plant is rich in milky sap in which two bitter substances, lactucin and lactucopycrin, are found.
Action and application
.Decoction of wild chicory has antimicrobial and astringent properties. According to animal experiments, infusion and inflorescences of wild root in parenteral administration have a calming effect on the central nervous system and enhance heart activity, increasing the amplitude and slowing the rhythm of heart contractions.
Inflorescences, leaves and roots of chicory in the scientific medicine of the former USSR are not used for medicinal purposes.
In Bulgaria, chicory roots are used for liver diseases and jaundice as a choleretic, gallstones, as a digestive, diuretic, spleen enlargement and as a metabolism enhancer.
In Austrian medicine, common chicory is used, namely its roots as a diuretic and as a means of increasing appetite, promoting better digestion of food, in gastritis, in the form of decoction, extract and pressed tablets.
In domestic folk medicine chicory roots are used as a means of increasing appetite, improving digestion, with dyspepsia, especially with pains in the stomach, with diseases of the liver, spleen, kidney, with a general loss of strength, hysteria and diabetes, as well as a means of improving blood composition.
Used chicory common in the form of decoction and tincture inside. Externally - in eczema, chicken pox, tumors and old wounds in the form of rubbing alcohol tincture and washing with decoction of the root.
Abu Ali Ibn-Sina used common chicory for fever, gastrointestinal disorders, nausea, and eye inflammation. Decoction of the root in the form of a bandage recommended to apply to the joints with gout and on the bites of scorpions, wasps, snakes and lizards.
Chicory roots are used to make a coffee surrogate and also as an additive to natural coffee. Chicory inulin is consumed as a syrup or fruit sugar.
Chicory roots are a good raw material for alcohol production. The root leaves of cultivated chicory in fresh form can be used for salad.
Common chicory has soothing and digestive aiding properties. We recommend it for hypertension as a coffee substitute..
