Spicy plants: description and names

Many spicy plants are known to people since time immemorial. Initially, they were used for various rituals, and later they were actively used in cooking and medicine.

Types of spicy plants

Spices have long and firmly entered our daily life. They have become so familiar for us that we do not even notice how often they are used. Meanwhile, we daily prepare food or canned foods, while using spicy plants. All their diversity can be divided into the following types:

1. Spicy-aromatic.
2. Spicy-flavored.

Spicy aromatic plants have an original smell. A spicy taste has a specific taste.

During the research it was established that spicy-flavored plants and spicy-aromatic plants possess antiseptic, preservative, medicinal and bactericidal properties. Spices include essential oils and other very valuable substances that improve the culinary properties of foods, and also stimulate taste buds, digestive system, increase digestibility of food, cause appetite, favorably influence the metabolic process and the whole organism.

Most of them are imported to us from afar, as many plants (spicy) grow only in subtropics or tropics. But on the territory of our country there are many representatives of a family of spicy plants growing in the wild. Yes, and in our gardens, it is customary to grow a variety of herbs that are not only successful for eating, but also used in a wide variety of industries.

Variety of spices

Spicy plants are divided into six groups:

1. Acutely bitter, having a weak flavor. These include horseradish, pepper, mustard and others.
2. Bitter, but with a sharp spicy aroma - hops, sweet peppers, ginger, cloves, laurel, calamus, hyssop and others.
3. With a very strong, but not very sharp, sugary aroma and a light spicy taste - nutmeg, cinnamon, sweet clover, lovage, coriander.
4. With a light and delicate spicy smell - marjoram, savory, cumin, cardamom.
5. With individual properties - onions, garlic, dill, fennel, sage, anise, mint.
6. Drinks are plants used to make all kinds of drinks.

To give the drink a noble aroma and a specific taste, different cultural plants are used . For example, marjoram, peppermint, rosemary officinalis, basil, thyme, fennel, dill, coriander. For the same purpose wild plants are used: wormwood, air, angelica, bison, elecampane, barberry, licorice, cranberries, currants. In this case, completely different spice plants use different parts: seeds, flowers, roots, leaves.

The use of spicy plants

Many spicy plants produce products for various economic purposes. For example, some of them are used as ingredients for the preparation of salads (lovage, barago, leaves of cucumber grass, nasturtium, mint, dandelion).

Some plants with a spicy odor are used in the pharmaceutical and perfume industry, because they contain essential oils and biological active substances (basil, lemon balm, savory, dill, mint). They have strong healing properties, and therefore are used as medicinal products.

Spicy aromatic plants and spicy flavors are used for cooking in fried, boiled or fresh. Their sour, bitter, spicy, spicy and aromatic substances flavor the food, giving it an original taste, improving taste. In general, this helps to improve the absorption of food by the human body.

Spicy medicinal plants

Many spicy aromatic plants have medicinal properties, and therefore they are used as medicaments for many centuries. Biological active substances are present in many wild growing and growing plants, they favorably affect the whole organism as a whole, normalizing the work of individual organs.

Here is an example of such herbs. The same mint is a medicinal and spicy plant, which is very often found in suburban areas and vegetable gardens. Oregano, catholic, coriander, thyme, and badan also have spicy and medicinal properties.

Spice preparation

Leaves of spicy plants, seeds, roots, flowers can be collected in nature, and some of them can be planted on their own plot. Care for them does not require any colossal knowledge and skills. In general, there are about three hundred species of plants that are used as spices.

Spicy plants (photos are given in the article) are grown not only by amateur gardeners, but also on industrial plantations.

In our latitudes the truck farmers most often plant the following herbs: basil, fennel, lyubovok, marigold, coriander, mint, thyme, oregano, celery and many others. Culinary uses seeds of spicy plants, roots, flowers and stems. By making the blanks of such herbs, you need to know when and what parts of the plant to collect, and how to do it correctly. For example, if you need to prepare the ground part, then it should be done after the full development of the plant (as a rule, this happens in the summer). Raw materials are collected in the evening, so that there is no dew. Prior to this, watering the plants is not worth it, but after the harvest you need to fill the beds well, which will give a push to a new stage in the development of culture.

You should know that all the spices should be harvested in moderation. If you have a small family, then do not be zealous. The fact that dried essential oil herbs are not stored for more than a year, and therefore each season is better to harvest fresh harvest, rather than use perennial blanks that have lost most of the useful properties.

Perennial Spicy Plants

Previously, the range of spices on the shelves of stores was not as wide as it is now. Now in any supermarket you can find a good choice. Yes, and in the household plots are now growing a lot of spices, not just dill and parsley, as seed stores offer a large selection of seed.

Now very popular basil. Some mistakenly regard it as a strictly southern culture, but this is not entirely true. This plant can be grown in the middle zone of Russia.

There are different types of basil - bunchy, spoon-shaped, large, small. All varieties differ in flavor, colors and taste. The classic plant is ideally combined with meat and cheese. But a plant with a lemon scent is suitable for desserts, drinks and salads. Basil with clove flavor is used for the preparation of marinades. The most stable aroma is possessed by young plants at the very beginning of flowering.

In nature, there are low and high varieties of basil, with green, purple, smooth, corrugated, small and large leaves. Seeds of culture for obtaining greenery can be sown in open ground simultaneously with cucumbers.

Basil is a very beautiful plant, so it is not necessary to plant it on beds. It is enough to place several plants in the middle of floral arrangements.

Coriander

Coriander (cilantro) is a very popular culture. It is grown not only for the sake of greenery, but also for obtaining seeds. If you are a fan of fresh green coriander, then the seeds can be sown several times: from spring to mid-summer, keeping the time intervals of two to three weeks. For the cultivation of the crop, last year's seeds are used. Fresh do not sprout. Flowering of the plant begins with a sufficiently long daylight. If the seeds are sown during the period when the day is already beginning to shorten, then there will be no flowering.

If you grow coriander for the sake of seeds, then the umbrellas of the plant need to be cut off when they become golden. It is better not to wait for full ripening, as the seeds can get enough sleep. Umbrellas are dried, and then threshed.

At home, coriander seeds are stored in a glass jar, like any spice. Grind coriander in small portions in a coffee grinder as needed. Ground seeds quickly lose their smell.

Parsley

Parsley root is grown to produce white roots. They are crushed and put into soups, stew, stew. Culinary uses are also widely used for the leaves of the plant. Culture refers to perennial plants. Root crops are frost-resistant, and therefore they easily hibernate in the ground, and the leaf part even tolerates light autumn and spring and frost. For optimum parsley growth, the temperature is considered to be 16-18 degrees. At higher temperatures, the development and growth of the culture slows down, but there is an accumulation of aroma and essential oils in the leaves. There are more than ten cultivars: Eagle, Oriental, Alba, Piquant, Lyubasha and others.

Thyme vegetable

Thyme is very often called the Bogorodskaya grass. It refers to perennial plants. Thyme forms lush thickets and has a characteristic aroma. When a plant blooms, its stems are cut with a knife.

Thyme is a beautiful compact bush. But it hibernates not always successfully. Even in the end of winter, an evergreen plant has green foliage, but if the soil does not thaw for a long time, it may die from drought. It turns out that the leaves in the sun give a lot of moisture, and the roots can not get moisture from the frozen soil. In such cases, you can try to water the plant with warm water and cover with peat. Thyme on the site can live up to three years if he likes the space reserved for him.

Lovestock

Lubistok is a perennial plant growing to two meters in height. The culture has fleshy roots and fairly large leaves. The plant is very stable, even severe winters are not afraid of it. Ground parts carry short-term frosts to minus eight degrees. In cooking, not only the roots of the plant, but also the leaves are used. Fresh greens are put in a salad, the seeds are added to the brine to vegetables, and the roots are used as a spicy seasoning. The most frequently cultivated varieties are Don Juan, Hercules, Cupid, Leader, Udalets.

Oregano

Oregano is a spice with which there is some confusion. In the standard version, this name means marjoram. But under this name we offer oregano. Of course, both plants are herbs, but very different in taste. Their leaves and inflorescences are widely used in cooking, adding to salads, pizza, meat dishes, sauces and pastas.

Marjoram is served up with a duck, roast goose, put it in homemade sausage. The plant was even called a sausage grass, because in many countries it is the main seasoning in sausage products. Marjoram perfectly complements potato soups, dishes from fried poultry, liver, mushrooms and mutton. Grow marjoram in a seedling way, sowing seeds in April. The first shoots appear only after three weeks. In late May, transplants are transplanted into the open ground, when there is no threat of frost. Harvest the plants at the beginning of the period of mass flowering. Stems with inflorescences are cut at an altitude of about five centimeters above ground level and dried in a dark, but ventilated place.

Tarhun, or tarragon

Tarhun (tarragon) is a cold-resistant plant, growing in the form of a bush up to one meter high with a large number of shoots. If the plant is not transplanted, then it can grow for five to seven years. Culture does not like too raw a place.

All the spiced plants we have are very sun-loving and prefer to grow in open spaces. But they are dried only in the shade in a cool place, because at a temperature of more than 35 degrees, the aromatic substances evaporate.

Cardamom

Cardamom is a spicy plant of the ginger family, which is nothing but grass. There is a growing culture in the wild in South India (in moist forests). In the world markets of spices, Major and Indian cardamom are particularly valued. The fruit of the plant looks like a box. Gather them a little unripened, and then dry it in the sun. For the aromatization of confectionery and flour products, the boxes are ground. Green fruit has a stronger flavor than white.

Black cardamom

Black cardamom is a completely different spice. Fruits (boxes) are collected from the tree of the atotite, belonging to a family of ginger. Several species of such trees grow in the south of China and in the mountainous regions of China. Capsules of the plant are sold, as a rule, in a general form, they have a pleasant aroma with a barely perceptible shade of camphor and haze.

Also known is the black cardamom from Madagascar, Cameroon and Somalia. The French put this spice in liqueurs (Chartreuse, Curacao), the Germans add it to the mixture to make famous Nuremberg gingerbread. It is from the Germans that the tradition has come to add cardamom to Easter cakes.

Spicery is most popular in the East. For example, in India cardamom is added to all dishes and even beverages.

Turmeric

Turmeric is a spice of bright yellow color. Get it from the rhizomes of the plant family ginger. Spice has a slightly burning bitter, but pleasant taste. Turmeric is incredibly popular in England, India, Central Asia, China, Azerbaijan. Spice is often used instead of expensive saffron, although their properties are still different. Dishes cooked with turmeric are stored longer. Spice is used for cooking beef, lamb and chicken.

Cinnamon

Cinnamon is an evergreen tree, whose height reaches 15 meters. To obtain the famous spice, not fruits and leaves are collected, everything is much more complicated. A two-year-old tree is cut down and a stump is left, from which young shoots appear next year. As soon as they reach a meter height, they are cut and removed from them by bark. And take only the inner layer. Drying, the thin strips are twisted into a tube. In this form, cinnamon goes on sale.

Cinnamon, as a spice, can be divided into Ceylon (noble) and Chinese (cassia). The first is considered more expensive and valuable, because it is made only from the inner layer. But the cassia is made from the whole bark, and therefore its taste is more burning and harsh. In our stores, they sell cassia, as a more affordable and cheaper option. Although it is worth noting that noble cinnamon wins much both in the chemical composition and taste qualities.

Instead of an afterword

In this article, we have cited examples of only some spicy plants from all their vast diversity. Spices have long been used by people in cooking and as a remedy, and therefore are indispensable helpers in everyday life.