Cucumber grass , or Cucumber , or Borage ( Latin Borágo [2] ) is a monotypic genus of flowering plants of the Boraginaceae family . Single view - medicinal borage ( Latin Borago officinális ), an annual herbaceous plant. According to The Plant List , the genus includes five species [3] .
| Cucumber herb | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Borago L. , 1753 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Borago officinalis L. - Borage | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Content
Distribution and Ecology
Comes from Syria , in the wild grows in Asia Minor , countries of southern Europe , North Africa and South America [4] .
It grows in gardens, garbage places, like a weed .
Biological Description
Botanical illustration from a book by O. V. Tome Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz , 1885
Annual plant , stiff, 60-100 cm high.
The root is rod.
The stem is straight or ascending, thick, ribbed, hollow, branched at the top.
The basal and lower stem leaves are elliptical or oval, obtuse at the apex, narrowed to a short petiole to the base; stem leaves are oblong-ovate, sessile, stalk-bearing, like stems, covered with hard whitish hairs.
Flowers on long legs are collected in curls; calyx densely stiff-haired, almost to the base divided into linear lanceolate lobes, corolla longer than calyx, dark blue, less whitish, with short tube. Five stamens .
The fruit is an oblong-ovate, small-tuberous nutlet .
It blooms in June and August. The fruits ripen in July and September.
Chemical Composition
The leaves of the plant contain carotene , ascorbic acid , mineral salts (especially a lot of potassium ), organic acids ( malic , citric ), mucous substances , saponins , tannins ; flowers - mucus and essential oil .
Meaning and Application
Cucumber grass called borago is known since ancient times.
Good honey plant and pergonos , gives light honey from colorless and transparent nectar and pollen-pollen . Under favorable conditions, honey productivity reaches 200 kg per hectare of continuous thickets. Bees visit cucumber grass even in cool weather [5] .
The aerial part of the plant can be used for dyeing woolen fabrics in blue [6] .
Cooking Use
In Western Europe, cucumber grass is cultivated as a vegetable plant . Young leaves smell like fresh cucumber, their taste is refreshing, reminds cucumbers with a touch of onion. Fresh leaves are used for food, flowers are fresh and candied .
They are good substitutes for cucumbers, they are added to vinaigrettes , salads , sauces (mustard, tomato, sour cream), side dishes, okroshka , cold vegetable soups and borscht. Roots collected in the fall are used to make green oil , added to cheeses , cottage cheese , sour cream , to perfume tinctures, wines, punch , vinegar, syrups, beer, essences and cold drinks. Cucumber herb gives a spicy taste to minced meat, minced meat and fish fried in vegetable oil.
Fresh and dried cucumber grass flowers are used in the liquor and confectionery industries. In Iran, traditionally dried flowers are brewed and consumed as a hot drink along with tea.
Leaves are harvested before flower shoots appear; young plants are used whole instead of spinach . The yield of green mass is 50-60 c / ha [6] .
Medical Use
In ancient Rome and medieval Europe, leaves and flowers of grass were added to wine to give courage to soldiers before a battle, and to those who feasted to get rid of sadness and melancholy. In the XV century, it was also believed that the flowers of cucumber grass contribute to the uplifting and drive away sadness. In medicine of the past, plant leaves were used fresh and dry for joint rheumatism , gout , skin diseases caused by metabolic disorders, as a soothing , mild laxative [2] , diuretic , and enveloping agent.
Vitamin salad from the plant prevents inflammatory processes in the kidneys and intestines and reduces the feeling of nervous irritation in easily excitable patients, has a beneficial effect on metabolism, therefore it is recommended in dietary nutrition for diseases of the kidneys, liver, gall bladder, and vascular system. The plant is good for rheumatic, gouty and other pains in the joints and muscles.
Flowers and leaves are included in the pharmacopeia of some countries as a refreshing, diaphoretic, diuretic and for the treatment of rheumatism [6] .
Views
According to the database of The Plant List , the genus includes 5 species [3] :
- Borago longifolia Poir.
- Borago morisiana bigazzi & ricceri
- Borago officinalis L. typus [7] - Borage
- Borago pygmaea ( DC. ) Chater & Greuter
- Borago trabutii maire
Notes
- ↑ For the conventionality of indicating the class of dicotyledons as a superior taxon for the plant group described in this article, see the APG Systems section of the Dicotyledonous article .
- ↑ 1 2 Tanfiliev G.I. Burachnik // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
- ↑ 1 2 Borago . The Plant List . Version 1.1. (2013). Date of appeal September 14, 2016.
- ↑ According to the GRIN website (see the Links section).
- ↑ Abrikosov H.N. et al. Cucumber grass // Dictionary of the beekeeper / Comp. N.F. Fedosov. - M .: Selkhozgiz, 1955 .-- S. 221.
- ↑ 1 2 3 Gubanov I.A. et al. Wild useful plants of the USSR / ed. ed. T.A. Rabotnov . - M .: Thought , 1976. - S. 277—278. - 360 p. - ( Reference guides to the geographer and traveler ).
- ↑ Information about the genus Borago (English) in the Index Nominum Genericorum database of the International Association for Plant Taxonomy (IAPT) .
Literature
- All about medicinal plants in your beds / Ed. S. Yu. Radelova. - SPb. : LLC “SZKEO”, 2010. - P. 136-138. - 224 p. - ISBN 978-5-9603-0124-4 .
- Gubanov I.A. et al. 1051. Borago officinalis L. - Borage bush or Cucumber herb // Illustrated identifier of plants in Central Russia. In 3 t . - M .: T-in scientific. ed. KMK, Institute of Technology. ISS., 2004. - T. 3. Angiosperms (dicotyledonous: dicotyledonous). - S. 84. - ISBN 5-87317-163-7 .
- Dudchenko L.G., Koziakov A.S., Krivenko V.V. Spicy-aromatic and spicy-flavoring plants: Reference book / Otv. ed. K. M. Sytnik. - K .: Naukova Dumka , 1989 .-- 304 p. - 100,000 copies. - ISBN 5-12-000483-0 .
- Tanfiliev G.I. Burachnik // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
- Rostovtsev S.I. Cucumber grass // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
Links
- How to grow storage
- Purdue University Center for New Crops & Plant Products
- Gernot Katzer's Spice Pages
- Comprehensive profile for Borago officinalis from the website MaltaWildPlants.com
- Borago officinalis : information on the taxon in the Plantarium project (identifier of plants and an illustrated atlas of species).