Chive Rings Profile
Also known as
Allium schoenoprasum.
Introduction
If you're a vegan and you don't make chicken soup, what do you take for a cold? The answer from Traditional Chinese Medicine is to make a soup with tofu or miso and chives. In 190 AD, the venerable master Zhang Zhong Zhing, whose Treatise on Cold is still the basic text of herbal taught to doctors in China today, recommended chives and soy to "open the pores" of the skin, inducing sweating, to sweat out the "environmental evil" he associated with cold and we associate with viruses.
Constituents
Alanine (antioxidant, cancer preventative), allyl-mercaptan, beta-carotene, caffeic acid, citric acid, ferulic acid, glutamic acid, glycine, histidine, Isoleucine, kaempferol, malic acid, methionine, niacin, octacosanol, quercetin, thiamine, vitamin C.
Parts Used
The fresh or dried stem, chopped.
Typical Preparations
Can be used to make teas, but more often used in cooking.
Summary
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, chives warm the kidney and increase the yang. Chives are used to maintain male potency, and a study published in the November 2002 Journal of the National Cancer Institute (of the United States) found that men who consumed the greatest amounts of chives had a 70% lower risk of developing cancer of the prostate.
Precautions
None.
This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
