Not everyone knows that a roadside nondescript blue flower is the famous chicory that is used to make coffee substitute. And many healers and ancient scholars knew about the healing properties of this plant.
Common chicory: description
It belongs to perennial herbaceous plants. Its root is fusiform, very large and fleshy, excreting milky juice when cut.
Common chicory has an erect stem with a ribbed surface, reaching a height of 120 centimeters, and it branches strongly.
The leaves of the plant are collected in rosettes, the leaves near the base of the flower have a notched, weakly lobed or cirrus-separated structure, tapering to the base. The leaves are mid-stem, lanceolate, sessile, alternate with a wide base and sharp-toothed edges, and the upper leaves are lanceolate and more solid.
Bisexual flowers are located in baskets, always in the axils of the leaves and on the tops of the plants singly. They are blue in color, but there are also pinkish and white species, petals with 5 cloves, reed. The time of plentiful flowering falls in the middle of summer. After flowering, an achene (fruit) appears, mainly pentahedral or trihedral. Its length is small, 2-3 millimeters, it is slightly oblong and has a brown tint.
The common chicory plant is a wonderful honey plant. It also reacts very strongly to sunlight - after 5 pm open flowers are very difficult to find.
Places of growth
It grows almost everywhere: it can be found in the Asian and European parts of Eurasia, as well as in New Zealand, Africa, Australia. Photos of common chicory are familiar to many residents of these places. Quite often it occurs along ditches, roads, in meadows, and sometimes forms abundant thickets.
Landing
To choose the right site for planting, you need to know that it can not be sown constantly in one place, since permanent crops can lead to various diseases. About three years must pass before the plant can be returned to the same place again.
Do not sow it after potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, as this plant is susceptible to damage by wireworm or sclerotinia. Be prepared that after harvesting chicory in the soil there will remain parts of the root crop that germinate in the spring. In order not to fight weeds, plant plants that need to be harvested early, in other words, with a short growing season. Among them, one can distinguish irises, tulips, gladioli.
Care
In autumn, it is necessary to dig a plot, the depth should be at least 30 cm. Superphosphate fertilizer is added to the ground, as well as 40% potassium salt. In spring, the soil is harrowed, after which ammonium nitrate is added. The seeds of chicory must be sown at the end of April, the distance between the rows should be 40 cm, and about 10 cm from each other. After planting, the plot rolls.
Collection
For medical purposes, chicory roots are used mainly, sometimes grass is used, namely the tops and flowers of the plant. The roots are harvested in the fall. They are dug up, then washed with cool water, they get rid of excess moisture. Next, the roots are cut into pieces and cleaned for drying, which can be done outdoors and using drying equipment. Dried roots can be stored up to 2 years.
The grass is harvested during the flowering of the plant, that is, ordinary chicory must be collected in the summer. To do this, cut off the upper stems (about 30 cm in size). Grass can also be dried in dryers or in the fresh air. Its storage time is one calendar year.
Healing properties
Alternative medicine has found a large number of uses for chicory. For example, grass, seeds and roots are used in the treatment of the liver, stomach, bladder, intestines, spleen, and preparations based on this plant are used for sedation and hysteria, and they also treat anemia and hemoptysis.
A decoction of seeds has an antipyretic, analgesic and diaphoretic effect. An infusion of flowers can calm a person with increased excitability, and also reduces pain in the heart. Fresh plant juice was used to treat anemia and malaria. A decoction of grass is often added to the bathtubs, thus treating diathesis, eczema and joints. The same herb is used in the form of a poultice to eliminate abscesses, and in the form of ash together with sour cream it is used for a variety of skin lesions, including eczema and psoriasis.
Common healers of common chicory, the healing properties of which are described in detail in this article, are familiar from ancient times. In various works of ancient healers there are references to this flower.
Chicory is a great substitute for coffee, although it is much healthier. Such a replacement helps to cleanse the human body, remove accumulated toxins and toxins, radioactive substances, helps improve digestion, and also speeds up metabolism.
The plant has a positive effect on the digestion process and gastric motility. For example, ordinary chicory when digesting difficult to digest food helps to improve the functioning of the stomach.
The elimination of toxins is explained by the fact that the plant has a beneficial effect on the liver, while enhancing its functions.
Recipes
Common chicory has unique beneficial properties. For example, with its daily use, the general condition of a person and the condition of his skin in particular improves.
The most elementary way of its use is considered to be a decoction.
Root broth
The roots of chicory ordinary in the volume of a tablespoon must be carefully chopped, then pour half a liter of hot water and boil for thirty minutes. The resulting broth should be filtered after cooling and taken a tablespoon before meals three times a day. This broth perfectly helps the digestion process, improves appetite, and is also considered an excellent diuretic and choleretic agent.
Infusion of roots
Chicory root is used to make the infusion. It is used to treat the stomach, with inflammation of the bladder, as well as skin diseases. The recipe for the infusion is quite simple: you need to pour a tablespoon of ground dry root into half a liter of hot water and leave it to infuse for several hours in a closed container. After the infusion, it is necessary to strain, squeeze the remains of the root and apply half an hour before eating half a cup three times a day. Also, the infusion is recommended to drink for the treatment of an enlarged spleen or for cholelithiasis.
Chicory juice
Common chicory is used in the form of juice, which has a huge number of useful properties, since it treats skin diseases (diathesis, acne, pustular skin diseases, eczema) and anemia, in addition, is a sedative. In order to prepare the juice, you will need only young shoots during the period of their budding, which are washed very carefully, then scalded with boiling water and passed through a meat grinder. Squeeze the finished gruel through several layers of gauze or rag and boil the juice for a couple of minutes. Next, you need to add honey to the finished product and take up to 4 times a day for a teaspoon.
Lotions from the roots
Such lotions help to cure diathesis in children after two years. In order to prepare a lotion, you need chicory root and its aboveground part, taken in identical parts. Four tablespoons of the finished mixture should be boiled in a glass of clean water for half an hour. Next, cool and squeeze thoroughly. Take a shower or bath overnight. The treatment time is at least three days.
For the treatment of anemia
You will need half a glass of milk, in which you need to add a spoonful of chicory juice. This mixture should be taken at least three times a day for a month and a half. Next, you need to take a break for one week and repeat the course.
To improve vision
To restore or improve vision, chicory is also suitable - a plant with unique healing properties. To do this, use a mixture of parsley juice, chicory, celery and carrots. A glass per day of this mixture with regular use for several days gives excellent results with various vision defects.
With gastritis
The stems and chicory flowers need to be carefully chopped, after which take a couple of spoons of this composition. This amount of the mixture must be poured with a liter of hot water and boiled for fifteen minutes. Cool, strain, and then drink three times a day for half a glass.
With arrhythmia
Chicory root must be carefully chopped, then take one spoon, pour half a liter of clean water into it and boil. Remove from heat, close the lid and insist for two hours. Then strain and add honey to the broth. The finished product should be taken half a cup three times a day before meals.
For the treatment of lung diseases, prevention of bronchitis and laryngitis
Grind chicory root, add motherwort herb to it. Pour such a mixture in the amount of 3 tablespoons with two glasses of boiling water and set aside for fifteen minutes. Drink throughout the day like regular tea.
Special recommendations
Chicory is a plant whose action is considered to be similar to the action of dandelion, therefore, it is recommended to mix these two plants. And if you add a little peppermint to the resulting composition, you get tea that is perfect for autumn and spring wellness courses of treatment and recovery of the body. This tea has a therapeutic effect in rheumatic diseases, and also enhances the activity of the kidneys and liver, in other words, restores the person’s normal state of health.
Use in other areas
It is worth noting that the roasted plant roots are an excellent substitute for coffee. So, in Latvia, root is added to regular coffee, and a cold drink is prepared from it with apple juice, honey and lemon. But in Estonia it is egg coffee. Fruit and berry tea is flavored with chicory. At the same time, the roots can serve as a source of fructose, inulin, and can be used for the manufacture of alcohol (while the yield of alcohol from it is greater than from the same potato, and the quality is much better). Chicory is especially appreciated in the nutrition of diabetics. It is also widely used in the manufacture of cakes and sweets in the food industry.
Fresh leaves and chicory grass are edible; there are salad varieties with a high content of ascorbic acid in them. So, from young stems, leaves and shoots prepare salads. But the young shoots are fried, boiled. It is baked in Belgium in wine with apples and cheese. In Europe, chicory leaf is grown, which is added to salads, as well as to side dishes for steam, fried, baked and stewed fish, raw in soups. In addition, it is a wonderful honey plant, during rains and in wet weather, flowers secrete a huge amount of blue nectar. From 1 hectare of chicory get about 100 kilograms of honey.
Contraindications
Chicory, the properties and contraindications of which have long been known to mankind, has virtually no side effects, and is also not toxic.
Prolonged use of drugs from this plant can cause active secretion of gastric juice and diuresis. The use of herbal preparations from chicory is not recommended in the treatment of babies up to two years. In addition, individual intolerance may be observed.