Chicory

Common chicory (Cichorium intybus )

The common or Common Chicory (Cichorium intybus ), also called chicory, a plant belonging to the daisy family is (Asteraceae). It grows in Central Europe, often on roadsides. Cultural forms are chicory, radicchio and chicory root the. The Common Chicory was in Germany in 2009 " Flower of the Year".

• 8.1 Notes and references

Features

The Common Chicory is a perennial, herbaceous plant ( Hemikryptophyt ), reaches the heights of growth from 30 to 140 cm. It has a deep reaching tap root. The stems are sparrig way branching. The basal leaves and lower stem leaves are schrotsägeförmig pinnatisect, her bottom is hairy bristly. The basal leaves are 8-25 cm long and 1-7 cm wide. The upper stem leaves have an oblong- lanceolate shape, are pinnate to undivided and are sitting with geöhrtem base of the leaf without petiole.

The flower heads consist only of ray florets. They have a diameter of 3 to 5 cm, the lateral usually stand for two to five. They are short -stalked or sessile. The head cover is double row, the outer bracts are shorter and clearly protruding. The bracts are mostly glandular hairy. The ray florets are sky blue, rarely white in color; Bloom time is from June to October. Pollination is by insects, mainly by bees and hoverflies. The showy inflorescences are only in the morning and each open for just one day. If they are closed, the plant raises barely against their surroundings.

The achenes are 2-3 mm long, are oval, rather angular and have no clearly distinct pappus; this consists only of short, rather inconspicuous scales.

The chromosome number is 2n = 18

Ingredients

As a reserve carbohydrate stores the Common chicory inulin in the roots. The bitter substances are primarily the two sesquiterpene lactones Lactucin and Lactucopikrin. Other ingredients are esculetin, esculin, cichoriin, umbelliferone, scopoletin and 6,7- dihydroxycoumarin and other sesquiterpene lactones and their glycosides.

Dissemination and locations

The Common Chicory is native to Europe, western Asia and northwest Africa, next to it was introduced in Africa, North and South America. In Central Europe it grows in meadows, on waste places and fields. Along paths and roads they settled in characteristic wayside and impact plant communities. In China and the U.S. is the plant - transgenic forms - commercially grown as a forage crop. It grows mainly on fresh to rather dry, nutrient-rich soils and also tolerates some salinity. It is regarded as a pioneer plant and is a deep-rooting. The vertical distribution extends into the montane altitudinal zone at 1500 m.

System

The Common Chicory belongs to the genus of Chicory (Cichorium ), which includes among others the endive ( Cichorium endivia ).

Within the species there are two subspecies:

• Cichorium intybus subsp. glabratus (C. Presl ) Wagenitz & Bedarff
• Cichorium intybus subsp. intybus: belong to it all cultivated forms: Foliosum group: this group of varieties belonging to the chicory
• Radicchio Group
• Salad group also includes radicchio varieties.
• Sativum group chicory: The roasted roots are used as a coffee substitute, the leaves as silage. More recently, the chicory is also grown as fructan supplier.
• Sugar loaf Group: cultivation, especially in Italy.

Use

Common Chicory

This plant is used the Middle Ages the manufacture of medicines since the latest. You may be under the name solsequium one of the plants from the estates Regulation of Charlemagne (the name is not unique and was also used for marigold, dandelion and St. John's wort used ).

Paracelsus already recommends as a diaphoretic, Kneipp in gastrointestinal and liver diseases. In herbal medicine it is used to stimulate and to cure spleen (she is one of the few phytotherapeutics for the spleen ), liver and bile, but is also used for general cleaning in skin diseases and eczema.

From Campania and Calabria, the traditional use of wild species originated as a salad or vegetables. It is called here cicoria sylvatica ( " Wildzichorie " ) or cicoria verde ("green chicory ").

Popular applications include appetite stimulation (whole plant), stimulating the secretion of digestive juices and laxative effects. The appetite and digestion excitation, the bitter Guajanolide likely to be effective. In other applications, the effectiveness is not very busy. However, a recent study wants known from traditional application sedative, psychorelaxierenden and stress- effect -reducing effects of Cichorium intybus ssp. silvestre have confirmed. In summary, write Gerhard Madaus, 1938: " Because of its overall effectiveness and reliability Cichorium ... considered one of the most important plant remedies ".

Chicory

The chicory was first added to the roasted coffee beans, to give it more color and bitterness. From the mid-18th century it was also used alone as a coffee beverage (coffee substitutes ). As the inventor of the Zichorienkaffees kurhannoversche officer Christian Heine from Lower Saxony and the Braunschweig innkeeper Christian Gottlieb Förster apply († 1801 ), the / received 70 licenses for the operation of Zichorienfabriken in Braunschweig and Berlin in 1769. The cultivation was promoted about by Frederick the Great. Mid-19th century it was widely cultivated, but played no economic role more towards the end of the 20th century. Currently, its cultivation is experiencing a renaissance, as from their so-called for the increased functional food used by the food industry, prebiotic fiber inulin is obtained.

Chicory / chicory / radicchio

As the name implies, is the chicory as a food in the kitchen use, as such, however, an "invention" until the 19th century. According to tradition, drew the chief horticulturist at the Botanical Garden in Brussels, Bresier, 1846, the first chicons. The roots he could still grow in the wild, the sprouts he wrapped it but light-tight, so that they developed as little bitterness. According to another version, this type of driving is to go back to a random observation: As a Belgian farmers in 1870 its roots smashing due to unusually high harvest in the greenhouse, they discovered the strong buds during the winter.

For the salad just the shoots are used. The turnip -like roots are therefore buried and covered in November, during the winter, then drive from the axils of leaves previously been shortened and from the terminal buds 15 to 20 cm long and 5 cm thick spindle-shaped solid buds. Through the sunscreen they are pale and delicate. They are prepared as a salad or vegetables.

Myths and legends

Especially from the late Middle Ages are a lot of myths known that the chicory incredible magical powers, especially in the love spell attribute. You should make the wearer the ( excavated after a certain rite ) plant in the fight invincible and generally invulnerable. Other myths read to the effect that a Wegwarte the future husband can appear under the pillow of the Virgin in a dream. If the plant is dug up on Peterstag with a deer antler, then you can another superstition, according to each person beguile that you touch it.

A source leads to an old legend, according to which the flowers of the chicory, the blue eyes of a transformed damsels are that vain for the return of her lover waits from the Crusades to the Holy Land by the way. One may herein recognize motifs of the novel Henry of the Romantic poet Novalis Novalis. It is questionable, however, whether wild chicory as a real representation of the symbol of romance, who can be seen " blue flower ", which comes from the novel of Novalis.

In the fruit -bearing Society Siegmund Wiprecht of Zerbst is assigned the Common Chicory.

The heath poet Hermann Lons dedicated in his band "The Little Rose Garden " of the chicory a poem.

" Chicory There is a flower, Where the wind blows the dust, Blue is their bloom, But gray is their foliage. ... "