Categories
Herbs & Plants

Water chestnut

[amazon_link asins=’B012CVCEYY,B005UY77W0,B0016KZNDW,B017M1B8EG,B000WH44UI,B00HTPQUCG,B01N9HB6V3,B071F4DXQN,B00ASQZ0KQ’ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’finmeacur-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’fa922e55-df49-11e7-801c-83ea0309f1ed’]

Botanical Name :Water caltrop
Family: Lythraceae
Subfamily: Trapoideae
Genus: Trapa
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Myrtales

Common Names: water chestnut, buffalo nut, bat nut, devil pod, Singhara , Pani-fol

Habitat :Water chestnut is native to warm temperate parts of Eurasia and Africa

Description:
water chestnut is a floating annual aquatic plants, growing in slow-moving water up to 5 meters deep.The plant has three species of the genus Trapa: Trapa natans, T. bicornis and the endangered Trapa rossica.

Click to see pictures

..(01)....(1).……..(2)……….(3).…….

The plant  bears ornately shaped fruits, which in the case of T. bicornis resemble the head of a bull, each fruit containing a single very large starchy seed. T. natans and T. bicornis have been cultivated in China and India for at least 3,000 years for the edible seeds.

The water chestnut’s submerged stem reaches 12 to 15 ft (3.6 to 4.5 m) in length, anchored into the mud by very fine roots. It has two types of leaves, finely divided feather-like submerged leaves borne along the length of the stem, and undivided floating leaves borne in a rosette at the water’s surface. The floating leaves have saw-tooth edges and are ovoid or triangular in shape, 2–3 cm long, on inflated petioles 5–9 cm long, which provide added buoyancy for the leafy portion. Four-petalled white flowers form in early summer and are insect-pollinated. The fruit is a nut with four 0.5 in (1 cm), barbed spines. Seeds can remain viable for up to 12 years, although most will germinate within the first two years.

The plant spreads by the rosettes and fruits detaching from the stem and floating to another area on currents or by fruits clinging to objects, and animals.

The genus has an extensive fossil record, with numerous, distinctive species. Undisputed fossilized seeds have been found in Cenozoic strata starting from the Eocene throughout Europe, China and North America (though, the genus went extinct in North America prior to the Pleistocene). The oldest known fossils attributed to the genus, however, are of leaves from Cretaceous Alaska, referred to the species, T. borealis

Click to see water chestnut seeds  

Edible Uses:

Flour, Salt.

Corm – raw or cooked. A delicious taste, it is sweet and crisp when fully ripe and is starchy before that. Widely used in Chinese cooking, especially in chop suey. A flour or starch can be made from the dried and ground up corm and this is used to thicken sauces and to give a crisp coating to various deep-fried foods. The root is about 4cm in diameter, it contains about 36% starch. A nutritional analysis is available. The plant is used for making salt in Zimbabwe. No more details.The fresh corms can be peeled and eaten like a fresh fruit. The sweet, crisp nutty flavour resembles coconut, apple and some say macadamia nuts. Even if cooked, the chestnuts have the ability to remain crisp, which has been a feature highly favoured, for the texture effect of Chinese dishes. The sweet nutty flavour is popular with children. In fact, the plant is an ideal one to encourage the children to plant and watch grow and produce a treat.Chinese Water Chestnuts are a common ingredient in Chinese and Japanese dishes. They have a delightful appeal added to any stir-fry type dishes.They can also be added to salads.

You may click to see pictures of boiled water chestnut  

....(1)..……………..

Medicinal Uses:
In Asia people eat Chinese water chestnut for the prevention of stomach problems, including cancer. The corm is also used to relieve fevers, diarrhoea, indigestion, sore throat, jaundice, diabetes, hypertension to promote urination, strengthen the lungs and stomach for haemorrhoids and mouth ulcers. The plant is used to treat abdominal pain, amenorrhoea, hernia and liver problems. The expressed juice of the tuber is bactericidal.

Harvesting:
Chinese water chestnuts are harvested after the stems have turned brown and the corm skins have developed a dark brown colour. If the water can be drained away or pumped out, digging for the crop is simplified. This is where growing in a container will have a definite advantage.

Other Uses:

Weaving.

The leaf stems are used for weaving bags etc.

Cultivation :
A plant of marshes and shallow water, it prefers slightly acid soil conditions and a sunny position. Requires a rich fertile soil. Plants are not very frost hardy, the corms should be harvested at the end of the growing season and stored in a cool damp but frost-free position until the spring. It requires a 7 month frost-free growing season in order to produce a crop. Plants perform best at temperatures between 30 – 35°c during the leafy stage of growth, and about 5°c lower when the tubers are being formed.

Propagation:
Start corms in a tray of moist sawdust,then when about 8 cm high trans plant a 5 cm under and 20-40 cms apart into a half drum full to about 15 cm from the top with a mixture of manure and soil and enough water to cover soil with about 10 cm water.

Disclaimer : The information presented herein is intended for educational purposes only. Individual results may vary, and before using any supplement, it is always advisable to consult with your own health care provider

Resources:
http://www.iron-clay.com/herbal_remedies/chinese_water_chestnut.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_caltrop

Enhanced by Zemanta
Categories
Herbs & Plants

Good King Henry

[amazon_link asins=’B00MYZG3HS,B01HIOU7HQ,B00M3MKBKW,B00MYZFG12,B076PS18NS,B0085KZ5BQ’ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’finmeacur-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’cd0ecc06-d1ee-11e7-85e2-af5f9cd04898′]

Botanical Name: Chenopodium Bonus Henricus
Family: Amaranthaceae
Subfamily: Chenopodioideae
Tribe: Anserineae
Genus: Blitum
Species: B. bonus-henricus
Order: Caryophyllales

Synonyms: English Mercury. Mercury Goosefoot.Poor-man’s asparagus,Lincolnshire Spinach, Allgood. Tola Bona. Smearwort. Fat Hen.
(German) Fette Henne.

Common Names:  Good-King-Henry, Poor-man’s Asparagus, Perennial Goosefoot, Lincolnshire Spinach, Markery, English mercury, or mercury goosefoot
Part Used: Herb.

Part of plant consumed: Leaves and young stems.
Habitat: Good King Henry grows abundantly in waste places near villages, having formerly been cultivated as a garden pot-herb.Lincolnshire Spinach is a species of goosefoot which is native to much of central and southern Europe.

Description:Good King Henry is an annual or perennial plant growing up to 400–800 mm tall. The leaves are 50–100 mm long and broad, triangular to diamond-shaped, with a pair of broad pointed lobes near the base, with a slightly waxy, succulent texture. The flowers are produced in a tall, nearly leafless spike 100–300 mm long; each flower is very small (3–5 mm diameter), green, with five sepals. The seeds are reddish-green, 2–3 mm diameter.

Click  & see.

It is a dark-green, succulent plant, about 2 feet, high, rising from a stout, fleshy, branching root-stock, with large, thickish, arrow-shaped leaves and tiny yellowish-green flowers in numerous close spikes, 1 to 2 inches long, both terminal and arising from the axils of the leaves. The fruit is bladder-like, containing a single seed.

The leaves used to be boiled in broth, but were principally gathered, when young and tender, and cooked as a pot-herb. In Lincolnshire, they are still eaten in place of spinach. Thirty years ago, this Goosefoot was regularly grown as a vegetable in Suffolk, Lincolnshire, and other eastern counties and was preferred to the Garden Spinach, its flavour being somewhat similar, but less pronounced. In common with several other closely allied plants, it was sometimes called ‘Blite’ (from the Greek, bliton, insipid), Evelyn says in his Acetaria, ‘it is well-named being insipid enough.’ Nevertheless, it is a very wholesome vegetable. If grown on rich soil, the young shoots, when as thick as a lead pencil, may be cut when 5 inches in height, peeled and boiled and eaten as Asparagus. They are gently laxative.

Cultivation: Good King Henry is well worth cultivating. Being a perennial, it will continue to produce for a number of years, being best grown on a deep loamy soil. The ground should be rich, well drained, and deeply dug. Plants should be put in about April, 1 foot apart each way, or seeds may be sown in drills at the same distance. During the first year, the plants should be allowed to establish themselves, but after that, both shoots and leaves may be cut or picked, always leaving enough to maintain the plant in health. Manure water is of great assistance in dry weather, or a dressing of 1 OZ. of nitrate of soda, or sulphate of ammonia may be given.

Good King Henry has been grown as a vegetable in cottage gardens for hundreds of years, although this dual-purpose vegetable is now rarely grown and the species is more often considered a weed.

It should be planted in a fertile, sunny spot which is free from perennial weeds. Seeds should be sown in April in drills 1 cm deep and 50 cm apart. The seedlings should then be thinned to 10–20 cm. Good King Henry does not respond well to transplantation.

Typically, very little is produced in the first season. The plants should be regularly weeded and well watered. Harvesting should be moderate, with just a few leaves at a time collected from each plant.

The foliage can be cut in autumn, and a mulch, such as leaf mould or well-rotted compost applied to the plot. Cropping can begin in spring. Some of the new shoots can be cut as they appear (usually from mid spring to early summer) and cooked like asparagus. All cutting should then cease so that shoots are allowed to develop. The succulent triangular leaves are picked a few at a time until the end of August and cooked like spinach.

As with many of the wild plants, it does not always adapt itself to a change of soil when transplanted from its usual habitat and success is more often ensured when grown from seed.

Medicinal Uses:
Detersive and diuretic, the herb ought to have a place in vulnerary decoctions and fomentations. The young shoots, the succeeding leaves and the flowery tops are fit for kitchen purposes. It is good for scurvy and provokes urine. Outwardly it is much used in clysters, and a cataplasm of the leaves helps the pain of the gout.

The plant is also known as Mercury Goosefoot, English Mercury and Marquery (to distinguish it from the French Mercury), because of its excellent remedial qualities in indigestion, hence the proverb: ‘Be thou sick or whole, put Mercury in thy Koole.’

The name ‘Smear-wort’ refers to its use in ointment. Poultices made of the leaves were used to cleanse and heal chronic sores, which, Gerard states, ‘they do scour and mundify.’

The leaf is a source of iron, vitamins and minerals.  A poultice and ointment cleanses and heals skin sores.  Also in the preparation of an ointment for painful joints.  The plant was recommended for indigestion and as a laxative and a diuretic.  Used in a veterinary cough remedy for sheep. Rich in iron as well as vitamin C.

Modern uses: The leaves can be used externally in compresses to soothe aching and painful joints, but it is not considered to be of much value internally. Its main use has always been as a vegetable to be used as an alternative to Spinach.

The roots were given to sheep as a remedy for cough and the seeds have found employment in the manufacture of shagreen.

The plant is said to have been used in Germany for fattening poultry and was called there Fette Henne, of which one of its popular names, Fat Hen, is the translation.

Disclaimer:
The information presented herein is intended for educational purposes only. Individual results may vary, and before using any supplements, it is always advisable to consult with your own health care provider

Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_King_Henry
http://www.bean-sprouts.blogspot.com/2007/06/good-king-henry.html
http://www.health-topic.com/Dictionary-Good_King_Henry.aspx

http://www.herbnet.com/Herb%20Uses_FGH.htm

Enhanced by Zemanta
css.php