herb research - beet root

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Beetroots

Family: N.O. Chenopodiaceae

* Description

* Constituents

* Medicinal Action and Uses

---Synonyms---Spinach Beet. Sea Beet. Garden Beet. White Beet. Mangel

Wurzel.

---Parts Used---Leaves, root.

 

---Description---Beta vulgaris (Linn.) is a native of South Europe,

extensively cultivated as an article of food and especially for the

production of sugar, and presents many varieties.

It is derived from the Sea Beet (B. maritima, Linn.), which grows wild on

the coasts of Europe, North Africa and Asia, as far as India, and is found

in muddy maritime marshes in many parts of England, a tall, succulent

plant, about 2 feet high, with large, fleshy, glossy leaves, angular stems

and numerous leafy spikes of green flowers, much like those of the Stinking

Goosefoot.

The lower leaves, when boiled, are quite equal in taste to Spinach, and the

leaf-stalks and midrib of a cultivated form, the Spinach Beet (B. vulgaris,

var. cicla), are sometimes stewed, under the name of Swiss Chard (being the

Poiree a Carde of the French, with whom it is served as Sea Kale or

Asparagus). This white-rooted Beet is also cultivated for its leaves, which

are put into soups, or used as spinach, and in France are often mixed with

sorrel, to lessen its acidity. It is also largely used as a decorative

plant for its large handsome leaves, blood red or variegated in colour. Its

root, thoughcontaining almost as much sugar as the red Garden Beet, neither

looks so appetizing nor tastes so well.

The Mangel Wurzel, or Mangold, also a variety of the Beet, too coarse for

table use, is good for cattle, who thrive excellently upon this diet, both

its leaves and roots affording an abundance of valuable and nutritious

food.

In its uncultivated form, the root of the Sea Beet is coarse and unfit for

food, nor has any use been made of the plant medicinally, but the Garden

Beet has been cultivated from very remote times as a salad plant and for

general use as a vegetable. It was so appreciated by the ancients, that it

is recorded that it was offered on silver to Apollo in his temple at

Delphi.

---Constituents---The root contains about a tenth portion of pure sugar,

which is one of the glucoses or fruit sugars and is very wholesome. It is

softer than cane sugar and does not crystallize as well as the latter.

There is a treacle principle in it, but this renders it all the more

nutritious. Canesugar has to be converted by the digestive juices into

fruit sugar, before the body can absorb it, but the sugar present in the

Beetroot is already in the more easily assimilated form, thus making the

Beet a valuable food. Its sugar is a force-giver and an energy creator, a

source of vitality to the human body. Besides its tenth portion of pure

sugar, Beetroot has as much as a third of its weight in starch and gum.

The Beet makes an appetizing vegetable, plain boiled, stewed, or baked and

a good pickle, and in Russia forms an appetizing soup - called Bortsch -

the red root in this case being made to exude all its juice into a rich,

white stock.

A pleasant wine can be made from the roots and an equally good domestic ale

has also been brewed from Mangolds. A considerable amount of alcohol can be

obtained by distillation.

Although modern medicine disregards the Beet, of old it was considered to

have distinct remedial properties.

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---Medicinal Action and Uses---The juice of the White Beet was stated to be

'of a cleansing, digestive quality,' to open obstructions of the liver and

spleen, and, says Culpepper, 'good for the headache and swimmings therein

and all affections of the brain.' Also,

'effectual against all venomous creatures and applied upon the temples, it

stayeth inflammations in the eyes, it helpeth burnings, being used without

oil and with a little alum put to it is good for St. Anthonys Fire. It is

good for all weals, pushes, blisters and blains in the skin: the decoction

in water and vinegar healeth the itch if bathed therewith and cleanseth the

head of dandriff, scurf and dry scabs and relieves running sores and ulcers

and is much commended against baldness and shedding the hair.'

The juice of the Red Beetroot was recommended 'to stay the bloody flux' and

'to help the yellow jaundice,' also the juice 'put into the nostrils,

purgeth the head, helpeth the noise in the ears and the toothache.'

The Sugar Beet, or White Beet, is a selected form of the ordinary

red-rooted Garden Beet and is now the chief source of our sugar; as food

for animals, it has been preferred to turnips and carrots.

About 1760, the Berlin apothecary Marggraff obtained in his laboratory by

means of alcohol, 6.2 per cent. of sugar from a white variety of Beet and

4.5 per cent. from a red variety. At the present day, as a result of

careful study of many years, improvement of cultivation, careful selection

of seed and suitable manuring, especially with nitrate of soda, the average

Beet worked up contains 7 per cent. of fibre and 92 per cent. of juice. The

average yield of its weight in sugar was stated in 1910 to be 12.79 per

cent. in Germany and 11.6 per cent. in France.

In Great Britain, the cultivation of Beet for sugar was first seriously

undertaken in Essex in 1910, as the result of careful consideration during

several years and since the War. The Beet Sugar Industry, aided by

Government subsidy, can now be regarded as on a permanent basis. In 1926-7,

no less than fourteen factories were handling the Beet crops, mostly in

Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, producing large

quantities of white refined sugar.