Common chicory ( Cichorium intybus)
Many varieties are cultivated for salad leaves, chicons (blanched buds), or roots (var. sativum), which are baked, ground, and used as a coffee substitute and food additive. In the 21st century, inulin, an extract from chicory root, has been used in food manufacturing as a sweetener and source of dietary fiber. Chicory is also grown as a forage crop for livestock.
Description
When flowering, chicory has a tough, grooved, and more or less hairy stem. It can grow to tall.
The
leaves are stalked,
lanceolate and unlobed; they range from in length (smallest near the top)
and wide.
The flower heads are wide,
and usually light blue
or lavender; it has also rarely been described as white or pink.
Of the two rows of
, the inner is longer and erect, the outer is shorter and spreading. It flowers from March until October.
The seed has small scales at the tip.
Substances which contribute to the plant's bitterness are primarily the two sesquiterpene , lactucin and lactucopicrin. Other components are aesculetin, aesculin, cichoriin, umbelliferone, scopoletin, 6,7-dihydrocoumarin, and further sesquiterpene lactones and their .[Harsh Pal Bais, GA Ravishankar (2001) Cichorium intybus L – cultivation, processing, utility, value addition and biotechnology, with an emphasis on current status and future prospects. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 81, 467–484.] Around 1970, it was discovered that the root contains up to 20% inulin, a polysaccharide similar to starch.
Names
Common chicory is also known as
blue daisy,
blue dandelion,
blue sailors,
blue weed,
bunk,
coffeeweed,
cornflower,
hendibeh,
horseweed,
ragged sailors,
succory,
wild bachelor's buttons, and
wild endive.
("Cornflower" is also commonly applied to
Cornflower.) Common names for varieties of var.
foliosum include
endive,
radicchio,
radichetta, Belgian endive, French endive, red endive, sugarloaf, and witloof (or witlof).
The scientific genus name Cichorium is ultimately from : kíkhora, meaning endive. The species name intybus is a variant of also meaning endive. Moreover, intibus is the ultimate etymological source of the English word endive.
Ironically, the species of true endives is not Cichorium intybus but rather Cichorium endivia.
Distribution and habitat
Chicory is native to
western Asia,
North Africa, and Europe.
It lives as a wild plant on roadsides in Europe. The plant was brought to North America by early European colonists.
It is also common in
China, and
Australia, where it has become widely naturalized.
It is more common in areas with abundant rain.
Ecology
Chicory is both a
cultivated crop and a
weed plant with a cosmopolitan distribution. Analysis of introduced weedy populations in North America has revealed that naturalized weedy chicory is partially descended from domesticated
Cultivar.
Chicory grows in roadsides, waste places, and other disturbed areas, and can survive in lawns due to its ability to resprout from its low basal rosette of leaves. It typically does not enter undisturbed natural areas.
Uses
Culinary
The entire plant is edible.
Raw chicory leaves are 92% water, 5% , 2% protein, and contain negligible fat. In a 100-gram (3½ oz) reference amount, raw chicory leaves provide and significant amounts (more than 20% of the Daily Value) of vitamin K, vitamin A, vitamin C, some B vitamins, and manganese. Vitamin E and calcium are present in moderate amounts. Raw endive is 94% water and has low nutrient content.
Root chicory
Root chicory (
Cichorium intybus var.
sativum) has long been cultivated in Europe as a coffee substitute.
The roots are baked, roasted, ground, and used as an additive, especially in the Mediterranean region (where the plant is native). As a coffee additive, it is also mixed in Indian filter coffee and in parts of Southeast Asia, South Africa, and the southern United States, particularly in New Orleans. In France, a mixture of 60% chicory and 40% coffee is sold under the trade name Ricoré. It has been more widely used during economic crises such as the
Great Depression in the 1930s and during World War II in Continental Europe. Chicory, with
sugar beet and
rye, was used as an ingredient of the
East Germany Mischkaffee (mixed coffee), introduced during the "East German coffee crisis" of 1976–1979. It is also added to coffee in
Spain,
Turkey,
,
Lebanon and Palestinian cuisines.
Some beer brewers use roasted chicory to add flavor to (commonly expected to have a coffee-like flavor). Others have added it to strong blond Belgian-style ales, to augment the hops, making a witloofbier, from the Dutch name for the plant.
The roots can also be cooked like .
Leaf chicory
Wild
While edible raw, wild chicory leaves usually have a bitter taste, especially the older leaves.
The flavor is appreciated in certain cuisines, such as in the
and
regions of
Italy and also in the southern part of India. In Ligurian cuisine, wild chicory leaves are an ingredient of
preboggion and in the Apulian region, wild chicory leaves are combined with
fava bean puree in the traditional local dish
fave e cicorie selvatiche.
In
Albania, the leaves are used as a spinach substitute, mainly served simmered and marinated in olive oil, or as ingredient for fillings of
byrek. In Greece a variety of wild chicory found in
Crete and known as
stamnagathi (spiny chicory) is used as a salad served with olive oil and lemon juice.
By cooking and discarding the water, the bitterness is reduced, after which the chicory leaves may be sautéed with garlic, anchovies, and other ingredients. In this form, the resulting greens might be combined with pasta[Jaume Fàbrega, El gust d'un poble: els plats més famosos de la cuina catalana. Llomillo fregit amb xicoires]
Cultivated
Chicory may be cultivated for its leaves, usually eaten raw as
salad leaves. Cultivated chicory is generally divided into three types, of which there are many varieties:
-
Radicchio usually has variegated red or red and green leaves. Some only refer to the white-veined red-leaved type as radicchio, also known as red endive and red chicory. It has a bitter and spicy taste, which mellows when it is grilled or roasted. It can also be used to add color and zest to salads. It is largely used in Italy in different varieties, the most famous being the ones from Treviso (known as radicchio rosso di Treviso),
-
Belgian endive is known in Dutch language as witloof or witlof ("white leaf"), indivia in Italy, endivias in Spain, chicory in the UK, as witlof in Australia, endive in France and Canada, and chicon in parts of northern France, in Wallonia and (in French) in Luxembourg.
-
puntarelle ( Cichorium intybus var. foliosum), also known as puntarelle, includes a whole subfamily (some varieties from Belgian endive and some from radicchio)
Although leaf chicory is often called "endive", true endive ( Cichorium endivia) is a different species in the same genus, distinct from Belgian endive.
Chicory root and inulin
Inulin is mainly found in the plant family
Asteraceae as a storage carbohydrate (e.g. Jerusalem artichoke,
dahlia, and
yacon). It is used as a sweetener in the food industry, with 10% of the sweetening power of sucrose
and is sometimes added to yogurts as a 'prebiotic'.
[Madrigal L. Sangronis E. "Inulin and derivates as key ingredients in functional foods. Review" Spanish Archivos Latinoamericanos de Nutricion. 57(4):387-96, 2007 Dec.] It is also a source of
dietary fiber.
Fresh chicory root may contain 13–23% inulin as a percentage of its total carbohydrate content.[
]
Traditional use
Chicory root contains
similar to those found in plants in the related genus
Tanacetum.
[Edible and Medicinal Plants of the West, Gregory L. Tilford, ] In alternative medicine, chicory has been listed as one of the 38 plants used to prepare Bach flower remedies.
Forage
Chicory is highly digestible for
and has a low fiber concentration.
Chicory roots were once considered an "excellent substitute for
oats" for horses due to their protein and fat content.
Chicory contains a low quantity of reduced tannins
that may increase protein utilization efficiency in ruminants.
Some tannins reduce intestinal parasites.
Forage varieties include:
-
'Puna' (' Puna'): Developed in New Zealand,
[Gene Logsdon ][Donald L. Sparks (Editor)] Grasslands Puna is well adapted to different climates, being grown from Alberta, Canada, New Mexico, Florida to Australia.[Donald L. Sparks (Editor) ] It is resistant to bolting, which leads to high nutrient levels in the leaves in spring. It also is able to quickly come back after grazing.
-
'Forage Feast':
[Ashton Acton (Editor) ] A variety from France used for human consumption and also for wildlife plots, where animals such as deer might graze.[Kenneth J. Moore, Michael Collins, C. Jerry Nelson and Daren D. Redfearn (Editors) ] It is very cold-hardy, and being lower in tannins than other forage varieties, is suitable for human consumption.
-
'Choice': has been bred for high winter and early-spring growth activity, and lower amounts of lactucin and lactone, which are believed to taint milk. It is also use for seeding deer wildlife plots.
-
'Oasis':
[Peter J. Fiduccia ] was bred for increased lactone rates for the forage industry, and for higher resistance to fungal diseases such as Sclerotinia (mainly s. minor and S. sclerotiorum.[Steven T. Koike, Peter Gladders and Albert Paulus ])
-
'Puna II': This variety is more winter-active than most others, which leads to greater persistence and longevity.
-
'Grouse':
-
'Six Point': A United States variety, winter hardy and resistant to bolting.
Others varieties known include; 'Chico', 'Ceres Grouse', 'Good Hunt', 'El Nino' and 'Lacerta'.
History
The plant has a history reaching back to ancient Egypt. In ancient
Rome, a dish called
puntarelle was made with chicory sprouts.
It was mentioned by
Horace in reference to his own diet, which he describes as very simple: Me pascunt olivae, me cichorea levesque
("As for me, olives, endives, and light mallows provide sustenance").
[Horace, Odes 1.31, ca 30 BC] Chicory was first described as a cultivated plant in the 17th century.
When coffee was introduced to Europe, the Dutch thought that chicory made a lively addition to the bean drink.
In 1766, Frederick the Great banned the importation of coffee into Prussia, leading to the development of a coffee substitute by Braunschweig innkeeper Christian Gottlieb Förster (died 1801), who gained a concession in 1769–70 to manufacture it in Brunswick and Berlin. By 1795, 22 to 24 factories of this type were in Brunswick.[Letter from Monboddo to John Hope, 29 April 1779; reprinted by William Knight 1900 ] as the "chicoree", which the French cultivated as a leaf vegetable. In Napoleonic Era France, chicory frequently appeared as an adulterant in coffee, or as a coffee substitute.
In the U.S., chicory root has long been used as a coffee substitute in prisons.[(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: . By the 1840s, the port of New Orleans was the second-largest importer of coffee (after New York).
In culture
Chicory is mentioned in certain ancient Chinese texts about silk production. Amongst traditional recommendations 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 (e.g. in German language Blauwarte ≈ blue lookout by the wayside). Similar to the springwort and moonwort, it could open locked doors, according to European folklore.[Howard, Michael. Traditional Folk Remedies (Century, 1987), p.120.]
Chicory was also believed to grant its possessor invisibility.
See also
External links
