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The Dandelion: Golden Conqueror
| Article
# : |
12666 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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| Issue
Date : |
6 / 1987 |
1,292 Words |
| Author
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Linda Joyce Forristal
Linda Joyce Forristal, Life editor for The World & I, is a
member of Les Dames d'Escoffier and is on the board of the
Weston A. Price Foundation. |
When the Pilgrim mothers tucked away garden seeds for the long journey to America, dandelion seeds were one of their immediate choices. The dandelion, grown for centuries in gardens of England and the continent, was a prized inclusion is salads as well as the main ingredient of a delicate wine. In addition, it was used as a diuretic and a laxative. Later settlers also brought the dandelion with them, and soon the dandelion, which was not indigenous to the United States, escaped to the cleared fields and roadsides, spreading so quickly that it preceded the pioneers on their westward trek.
The dandelion's medicinal value was probably the reason for its selection to accompany the New World settlers and why it was ascribed the Latin name Taraxacum officinale. The specie name officinale was commonly given to those plants grown in the herbal or physic gardens of early monasteries and monastic hospitals. Though its scientific name remains constant, its common names are imaginative. For instance, the English word "dandelion" comes from the corruption of the Norman word dent-de-lion because its serrated leaves resembled the teeth of a lion. Gemeiner Lowenzahn and dente-de-leao respectively the German and Portuguese translations of this. Slightly more creative, the French named the dandelion pissenlit, which, loosely translated, means a wet bed.
Actually there are a number of different "kinds" of dandelions, but whether they should be considered different species or varieties of a single species is not always clear. The leaves of young plants tend to be entire, that is with only slightly toothed margins; those of old plants are deeply toothed or "cut." Chemical studies show that the presence of available nitrogen and other minerals needs for protein and production of new leaf cells prolongs the youthful stage; while the increased proportion of carbohydrates to proteins produces the toothed leaves.
On the basis of its age, a botanist looking at pressed specimens could easily put the same "kind" of dandelion into two different species. More generally interesting perhaps is the nature of how carbohydrates are stored during growth. Instead of starch, the dandelion stores the polysaccharide inulin. The inulin in dandelions digests into fructose or fruit sugar in contrast to the glucose or a mixture of glucose and fructose that is obtained from the breakdown of most carbohydrates. The special benefits of fructose in certain diets helps to explain the popular belief in the medicinal virtues of dandelion greens, raw or cooked.
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