In the people of chicory, the ordinary in different regions is also called a waiting plant, a watchman, a road patrol, an enchanted maiden, the bride of the Sun - for the shape of a stalk resembling a whip. The root of chicory is a valuable food that is widely used in the preparation of sweets and cakes. It is used for making coffee and tea drinks. Chicory gives them a specific flavor, taste and color. Everyone is good chicory, useful properties of the drink are widely used in folk medicine. For medicinal purposes, the entire plant is used. However, the most useful in chicory is its roots.
Harvesting chicory
If you notice, chicory - a drink is not cheap. Its cost is sometimes comparable to good grades of coffee. But why pay for what you can cook with your own hands? By preparing chicory, you are responsible for its quality and environmental safety. Where to begin? Prepare the roots of chicory from early September to mid-October, after rain or watering. The roots need to be excavated, and not pulled from the ground with your hands! When tearing out, the largest and most valuable part of the root remains in the ground. The fact is that the rhizome of a plant can go to the ground to a depth of up to one and a half meters, that's because of this in the people it is also called a "rat root".
The dug roots are shaken off the ground and thoroughly rinsed with water. Washed dried roots should be put for a week or a year and a half somewhere under a canopy, in the shade. Then, the roots are cut into thin rings with a thickness of 2 to 3 millimeters and dried in an oven or oven at a temperature of 60 to 70 degrees Celsius. Stems for medicinal purposes are harvested in summer during flowering. Dried roots and stems should be stored in hermetically sealed container in a dry dark place. Remember that the dried plant retains the healing property for three years.
Pharmacological properties of chicory
The root of chicory contains 60% of inulin, a polysaccharide, which is widely used in diabetic nutrition as a substitute for starch and sugar. It also contains the glycoside intibin, which is widely used in medicine and has the properties to remove tachycardia, dilate blood vessels, and have a calming effect on the central nervous system. Chicory roots contain up to 15% of sugars, bitter and resinous substances, tannins, organic acids, vitamins of group B, C, E, carotene, micro- and macro elements.
Useful properties of chicory
Chicory has restorative, sugar-reducing, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, astringent, soothing, urine and choleretic actions. In addition, chicory well stimulates the appetite, promoting digestion. Decoctions and tinctures from the roots of chicory enhance appetite, improve digestion, soothe the nervous system, reduce sweating, regulate metabolism in the body. They also increase cardiac activity, acting as an antipyretic and vasodilating agent. The maximum therapeutic properties of chicory are manifested in the treatment of diseases of the liver and gastrointestinal tract. In folk medicine, the useful properties of a chicory drink have long been used in diseases of the kidneys, spleen, liver, diabetes mellitus, eczema, chronic wounds.
Coffee substitute
Chicory is a substitute for coffee. Drink from the roots of chicory to taste like natural coffee and is not just a harmless, but a very healing drink. He removes and dissolves gallstones, gives courage in the morning, promotes better blood flow, and at night relieves insomnia. From the Baltic States and Germans, tsikor coffee has been honored since ancient times.
Tsikorny coffee: for its preparation dried roots must be roasted until light brown and grind in a coffee grinder. When roasting the roots, it is best to cook them less than to overcook. The more bitterness a drink has, the more useful its action. 1 - 2 teaspoons of ground chicory brew 1 glass of hot water. You can add milk or cream, sugar, honey to it.
Tea from chicory: for its preparation 1 teaspoon of roots should be poured 1/4 liter of cold water, bring to a boil and boil for 2 - 3 minutes. At the end strain. In the finished drink add sugar or honey.
Lovers of natural coffee is recommended to add chicory in it - then the harmful effect of coffee will be reduced. Here before natural coffee was sold already with "seasoned" chicory. If you regularly drink chicory, for example, instead of coffee, you can significantly reduce the "stocks" of toxins and toxins in the body, remove heavy metals and radioactive substances, and improve appetite and digestion, and reduce stress.
Treatment with chicory
Infusion of roots: 1 tablespoon chopped roots pour half a liter of boiled water and take half a cup 3 - 4 times a day before meals. Infusion should be taken with liver disease, especially during recovery from viral hepatitis. Also, this infusion has dietary properties and is recommended for excessive body weight and other metabolic and gastrointestinal disorders.
Decoction of roots: 1 tablespoon chopped chicory roots, pour half a liter of water and boil for 30 minutes. After cooling, drain. Drink 1 tablespoon 3 times a day before meals.
Spirituous tincture: 50 grams of root pour 0.5 liters of vodka, insist in a dark place for 2 weeks, strain. Drink 30 to 40 drops, added to a glass of water, 3 times daily before meals.
Infusion of flowers and leaves: 2 tablespoons of the mixture pour half a liter of steep boiling water and leave for 2 hours. Then strain. Take should be 3 times a day for half a cup before meals. Infusion of chicory flowers is used as a sedative for violations of the central nervous system.
Decoction or tincture of the root is recommended for gastritis, colitis, enterocolitis, liver and spleen diseases, hemoptysis, constipation, gout, joint diseases, muscle pain, toothache. And also with diseases of the gallbladder and kidneys, with cholelithiasis and kidney stones, to improve digestion, increase appetite, reduce the sugar content in the urine, reduce the increased nervous excitability. They are used as a general restorative, with edemas of cardiac origin, diabetes. Chicory useful properties of the drink prominently among other herbal teas.