CHIVES: SOME HISTORY
Allium schoenoprasum LILIACEAE
There is in every cook’s opinion
No savoury dish without an onion;
But lest your kissing should be spoiled
The onion must be thoroughly boiled! So said Jonathan Swift, and so at one time or another have all of us felt about the pungent smell of onions. This anti-social property is also shared by their small cousins, onion chives and garlic chives. But those of us who have any knowledge of natural medicine know that the onion family, with garlic at its head, is one of the greatest blessings to mankind in all the plant kingdom. I venture to say that if more people questioned their natureopathic physicians on the use of garlic in “miraculous” treatment of asthma and bronchitis, there would be an astonishing decrease in the misery caused by these diseases. Chest complaints cannot all be laid at the doorstep of smog and pollution. Some come from bad nutrition, causing imbalance and consequent bodily malfunction, which our foetid air only aggravates; and for most of these inherent bodily weaknesses garlic or one of its chive relatives can be of inestimable value.
I don’t propose in this book to deal with garlic itself. The study of all its cleansing properties would fill a very much larger volume; but I hope to write at length of it in a further book.
Chives have, to a lesser degree, very similar properties in the safeguarding of general good health and the warding off of disease. They contain, amongst other valuable constituents, iron, pectin and sulphur, and are a mild natural antibiotic. They help to strengthen the stomach and combat high blood pressure, and have a tonic effect on the kidneys. Every invalid recuperating from serious illness should have chives every day in the diet, for they have a stimulating effect on the appetite and, like all herbal medicine, have no troublesome side-effects. Chives also reduce the indigestibility of fats in food—a boon to those cholesterol-level watchers.
The herb came to Europe via the Asian cultures, and it is mentioned in early Chinese herbal writings. Marco Polo is credited by some with spreading its fame anew around the Mediterranean.
*71\181\8*
