Chicory
1、 Pharmacopoeia standard of Chicory     CICHORII RADIX
      This product is a traditional Uygur medicine. It is the dry aboveground part or root of Cichorium glandulosum boiss.et Huet or Cichorium intybus L. In summer and autumn, the aboveground part shall be cut or the roots shall be dug at the end of autumn to remove sediment and impurities and dry in the sun.
      [character] Cichorium intybus   ; The surface is grayish green or purplish, longitudinally ribbed, pilose or setose, and the section is yellowish white, hollow. The leaves are mostly broken, gray green, and both sides are pilose; The complete leaves in the middle of the stem are oblong, the base is sessile, and semi amplexicaul; The upward leaves are gradually smaller, with round ear like stems and spiny teeth on the edge. 5-13 capitulums arranged in short racemes. The involucre is bell shaped, with a diameter of 5-6mm; the bracts are 2-layered, the outer layer is slightly short or nearly equal, and the coat is hairy; Tongue shaped flowers are blue. . The air is slight, and the taste is salty and bitter.
      Chicory root   . It is hard and not easy to break. The outer side of the section is yellowish white, the middle is quasi white, and sometimes hollow. The breath is slight and the taste is bitter.
      Chicory   The stem surface is nearly smooth. Cauline leaves are few, oblong lanceolate. Capitulum few, clustered; Bracts short outside and long inside, glabrous or sparsely hairy at the apex. Achenes are scaly, with short crown hairs, 0.2 ～ 0.3mm long.
      ; Sometimes there are 2-3 forks at the top. The surface is grayish brown to brown, rough, with deep longitudinal lines, and the outer skin often falls off, showing brown to brown after falling off, with a few lateral roots and fibrous roots. Chew with tenacity.
      [identification] (1) cross section of this product: chicory stem   The epidermis occasionally has multicellular glandular hairs. The subcutaneous cells at the edges and corners are thick horn cells, and the cortical cells are filled with yellowish brown inclusions; The cells in the endothelial layer have obvious Kjeldahl points, underdeveloped central column sheath fibers, tough outer vascular bundle, about 20-25 bundles, obvious cambium, round vessels, single or several rings in the xylem, with a diameter of 8-50 μ M.
      Chicory root   Cork layer 2-3 rows of cells, brown yellow; Phloem rays or multilayers. .
      Chicory stem   The fibers of the columella are relatively developed, with several or more than ten vessels converging and intermittently encircling the xylem.
      ; Xylem accounts for about 1/2 of the cross section.
      (2) Take 1g of this product powder, add 30ml of petroleum ether (60 ～ 90 ℃), sonicate for 30 minutes, filter, and reserve the drug residue; The filtrate was evaporated to dryness, and the residue was dissolved by adding 1ml of ethyl acetate methanol (1:1) mixed solution as the test solution. Another 1g of chicory (or chicory root) control medicinal material was taken, and the control medicinal material solution was prepared by the same method. Test according to thin-layer chromatography (general rule 0502), suck 10 μ l each of the above two solutions, dot them on the same silica gel G thin-layer plate, use petroleum ether (60 ~ 90 ℃) ＾ dichloromethane (1:4) as the developing agent, develop, take out, air dry, spray 10% sulfuric acid ethanol solution, heat at 105 ℃ until the spots are clear. In the chromatogram of the test sample, spots of the same color appear on the corresponding position of the chromatogram of the control medicinal material.
      (3) Take the drug residue under (2) of [identification], volatilize the petroleum ether, add 30ml of ethyl acetate, sonicate for 30 minutes, filter, evaporate the filtrate, add 1ml of ethyl acetate methanol (1:2) mixed solution to dissolve the residue as the test solution. Another 1g of chicory (or chicory root) control medicinal material was taken, and the control medicinal material solution was prepared by the same method. According to the test of thin-layer chromatography (general rule 0502), suck 10 μ l each of the above two solutions, dot them on the same silica gel gf254 thin-layer plate, use dichloromethane methanol (9:1) as the developing agent, develop, take out, dry, and view under the UV light (254nm). In the chromatogram of the test sample, spots of the same color appear at the position corresponding to the chromatogram of the control medicinal material; Spray 10% sulfuric acid ethanol solution again and heat it at 105 ℃ until the spots are clear and show spots of the same color.
      [check] moisture   Not more than 10.0% (the second method of general rule 0832).
      Total ash   Not more than 10.0% (general rule 2302).
      [extract] according to the hot leaching method under the alcohol soluble extract determination method (general rule 2201), 55% ethanol shall be used as solvent, which shall not be less than 10.0%.
      Decoction pieces
      [processing] remove impurities and cut into sections.
      [identification], [inspection], [extract] are the same as that of medicinal materials.
      [nature, taste and tropism] slightly bitter, salty and cool. It belongs to the liver, gallbladder and stomach meridians.
      [functions and indications] clear liver and gallbladder, strengthen stomach and digestion, diuresis and detumescence. For damp heat jaundice, less stomach pain, less edema and urine.
      [usage and dosage] 9 ～ 18G.
      [storage] store in a cool and dry place.


2、 Chemical constituents of Chicory
,Aesculin a（esculin）， Cichoriin, lectucin and lacturopicrin [1].
cycasin Caffeoyl tartaric acid（monocaffeoyltartaric acid）[2]， Dicaffeoyl tartaric acid, also known asCichoric acid（chicoric acid）[3]。

3、 Pharmacological effects of Chicory
The infusion of wild chicory flower can excite the central nervous system and enhance cardiac activity (the amplitude increases but the frequency slows down) when injected into animals. The decoction has antibacterial and astringent effects. ; High concentration of the infusion can enhance gastric secretion, but does not increase smooth muscle tension. The ethanol or ether extract of the root has antibacterial effect, and its effective component may be a sesquiterpene. Root also has laxative effect. Seeds have non-specific plant hemagglutinin. It has also been reported that chicory contains carcinogenic hydrocarbons. Its content is higher than that of other coffee drinks.