FORAGE CHICORY.

Chicory is a herbaceous, perennial, edible plant from the Genus Chicorium of the Family Asteraceae. In Romania, chicory is known mainly for its medicinal uses due to its high content of diuretic and laxative, hypoglycaemic, anti-thyroid and depurative substances. Its particular resistance to climate conditions, particularly prolonged droughts, and its high nutritive value have determined the introduction into cultivation of chicory in different fodder crop structures, particularly in moisture-deficit areas, where it is cultivated both in pure culture and in different temporary grassland mixtures. Chicory is a herbaceous, perennial, edible plant from the Genus Chicorium of the Family Asteraceae. It has been known ever since Ancient times: in Ancient Egypt, it was cultivated as a medicinal plant and was used to treat liver and bile, and kidney diseases. Nowadays, chicory root is a very popular coffee surrogate and its aerial parts are used in medicine and gastronomy (basal leaves, slightly bitter, are used in salads). Chicory is native from North Africa, Europe and Asia; it can be seen in different ecological areas, but it is spread mainly in grasslands and in haymaking fields, in uncultivated areas, from the plain area to the hill and mountain areas. In Romania, chicory is known mainly for its medicinal uses due to its high content of diuretic and laxative, hypoglycaemic, anti-thyroid and depurative substances. Though very frequent in the spontaneous flora, chicory is still very little known in Romania as a forage crop. Its particular resistance to climate conditions, particularly prolonged drought, and its high nutritive value (superior to other well-known fodder species such as alfalfa, cock's foot, and clover) determined its introduction in different fodder crop structures, particularly in moist-deficit areas, where it is cultivated both in monoculture and in different temporary grassland mixtures. The last decades, the cultivation of forage chicory has spread to all Mediterranean countries as well as to New Zealand and Australia, U.S.A. and Canada, France, Italy, India, and China (SANDERSON et al., 2001). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]