Tarragon - Useful Properties, Application

2024 Author: Josephine Shorter | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-07 17:49

Tarragon

Tarragon is a perennial plant with a slightly wormwood appearance. This plant grows as a bush, it can reach 1.5 m in height. Tarragon leaves are dark green in color, rather narrow in shape, have a strong but pleasant aroma, and taste a little like pineapple. The stems are yellowish-brown in color, many branches branch off from them. Leaves up to 80 mm in length and up to 10 mm in width, green with a glossy sheen. Tarragon blooms in the second half of summer, flowers are small, mostly yellow. Tarragon is also called tarragon or tarragon wormwood. Tarragon bears fruit with a tuft-free achene. The fruits appear in October.

Tarragon leaves are widely used in cooking, for example, various salads, as well as in salting vegetables and pickling cabbage. Tarragon begins to grow in early spring - almost immediately, as soon as the snow melts. Tarragon is most useful in the first three years of growth, despite the fact that it may well grow in a new place for up to 10 years.

The plant is cultivated everywhere, although in many countries, including Russia, it grows in the wild. Prefers pebble and dry steppe slopes, although it can also be found in the fields.

It is believed that the plant was brought to European countries from Siberia and Mongolia, which happened during the invasion of the Tatar-Mongol yoke. The most widespread varieties of tarragon are French, Russian and Transcaucasian tarragon.

Content:

• Composition and calorie content
• Useful properties of tarragon
• Tarragon use
• The use of tarragon in cooking
• Tarragon drink at home
• Tarragon contraindications

Composition and calorie content

• Fats: 0.8 g
• Proteins: 1.5 g
• Carbohydrates: 5.0 g
• Water: 91.7 g
• Ash: 1.0 g
• Cellulose: 0.5 g

Vitamins	amount	% RDA
Vitamin K	240 μg	200%
Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine)	0.29 mg	fifteen%
Vitamin C (ascorbic acid)	10 mg	fourteen%

Minerals (in 100 g):	amount	% RDA
Manganese	960.2 μg	48%
Vanadium	12.7 mcg	32%
Potassium	260 mg	nine%

Other important connections:

• Phytosterols - 9.8 mg (17.8% of the RDI)
• Purines - 6 mg (5% of the RDI)
• Oxalic acid - 5.2 mg (1.3% of the RDI)

Complete chemical composition ➤

Useful properties of tarragon

Tarragon, as you know, is valued not only for its spice and taste qualities, but also for a fairly high content of carotene and vitamin C. Like many other leafy spices, fragrant tarragon is able to give a person vigor. Tarragon essential oil has its own unique, characteristic only for this plant smell. It is precisely these properties of tarragon essential oil that create this unique aroma and pleasant spicy taste with a slight bitterness. Tarragon essential oil contains fellandrene, sabinene and ocimene.

In folk medicine, tarragon is popular as a diuretic, and its good antiscorbutic effect is also noted, in addition, it can simply be used as a general tonic. This remarkable plant is distinguished not by its pungency, but by the high aroma of essential oil, which is used in perfumery. Tarragon is able to improve appetite, also stimulate digestion, it is used for dropsy, as a diuretic. Also, the plant can have a calming effect, improve sleep. In the treatment of tuberculosis, pneumonia and bronchitis in Tibetan medicine, tarragon was used as a medicine.

The consumption of tarragon in food is useful for the prevention of heart attack and stroke, since the compounds contained in its composition prevent the formation of blood clots.

Depending on the purpose for which tarragon is used, the following effects can be achieved:

• Calming effect (normalizes sleep, helps to cope with depression);
• Wound healing effect (strengthens the walls of blood vessels, ensures their elasticity);
• Removal of inflammation;
• Toning effect;
• Strengthening the body (increases immunity);
• Removal of spasm (relaxes the nerves, relieves toothache);
• Getting rid of parasites;
• Diuretic effect (helps to eliminate edema, removes excess fluid from the body);
• Carminative effect.

Thanks to tarragon, you can lower blood pressure, normalize the metabolic process, strengthen the walls of blood vessels, and improve digestion. When using herbs for food, there is an increase in the production of gastric juice, the appetite improves.

Another well-known property of tarragon is its effect on the sex glands. In particular, in men, taking tarragon in food increases potency.

Tarragon use

Since ancient times, tarragon (tarragon) has been successfully used in the fight against headaches and toothaches, as well as with insomnia, depression, and poor appetite. Tarragon is advised to be taken after a heavy meal in order to improve the digestive process, and this miracle plant is also recommended to increase potency in men. The latter is explained only by the fact that tarragon has a general strengthening effect on the body. Tarragon, when combined with other herbs, can be used as a salt substitute, which is extremely useful for people with hypertension.

Tarragon is used for treatment in a dried state, in the form of medicinal tinctures and teas. A decoction is prepared from the leaves of the plant, which previously, and even now, is used by many for various diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, as well as intestinal spasms, sluggish digestion, flatulence, hiccups, painful periods in women, menstrual irregularities and premenstrual syndrome.

A decoction made from tarragon roots is good for toothaches. Preparations that are made from tarragon have wound healing, anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic, carminative, diuretic, sedative and antihelminthic properties. Tarragon has a tonic effect, calms the nervous system.

The use of tarragon in cooking

Tarragon is widely used in cooking. The plant is used as a spice that adds aroma and flavor to the dish. It is added during conservation, during sauerkraut, when soaking pears and apples.

Tarragon is used in the preparation of hot dishes: meat, mushroom, fish. Tarragon is often added to alcoholic beverages such as liqueur, vodka, wine, which makes their taste and aroma more piquant.

Food can not only change its taste and aroma if tarragon is added to it, but it will also be stored longer, since this plant acts as a natural preservative.

Tarragon is especially common in cooking in France, where the herb is part of the famous Béarnaise sauce.

Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine - the inhabitants of all these countries are familiar with the taste of a non-alcoholic drink called Tarhun, in which tarragon is used as the main flavoring agent.

Tea is brewed with tarragon, which will be especially useful for people suffering from insomnia.

Tarragon drink at home

Making a tarragon drink at home is a snap. To do this, you need to take 100 g of grass, one lemon, one lime, mint, sugar and water.

Previously, the tarragon is thoroughly washed, then all the leaves must be torn off from the stem and chopped, breaking them with your hands. The stems should be cut with a knife into small pieces, about 10 mm long. Boil the water and pour the chopped stems and sugar (50 g) into it, leaving on the fire for 5 minutes, then remove from the stove. Water for this amount of sugar will require 250 ml.

The torn leaves are mixed with citrus juice and poured into the prepared sugar syrup. This must be done until it has cooled down. Then cover the container with all the contents with a lid and let it brew for an hour. The finished infusion is filtered and brought to the desired concentration with sparkling water or water without gas. You can decorate this homemade lemonade with a lemon wedge and tarragon leaves.

Contraindications

Contraindications of tarragon are due to the poison included in its composition. Do not forget that the plant belongs to the genus Wormwood, which means it must be used very carefully. If tarragon is used as a medicine, then it is strictly prohibited to exceed the recommended dose. This threatens with serious poisoning, the development of seizures, loss of consciousness.

Tarragon is contraindicated in diseases of the gastrointestinal tract (peptic ulcer, gastritis with high acidity), it should not be eaten during gestation, during breastfeeding, in the presence of individual intolerance.

In addition, there is evidence that prolonged use of tarragon in food can provoke the development of cancerous tumors, since it contains a substance such as methylchavicol. But in this case we are talking about the regular consumption of grass in large quantities. As a spice used in cooking, tarragon does not pose a danger to human health if it does not have the above contraindications.

The author of the article: Kuzmina Vera Valerievna | Endocrinologist, nutritionist

Education: Diploma of the Russian State Medical University named after NI Pirogov with a degree in General Medicine (2004). Residency at Moscow State University of Medicine and Dentistry, diploma in Endocrinology (2006).