Scientific name: Asparagus officinalis
Description:
Asparagus is a herbaceous, spring vegetable and flowering perennial plant with stout stems and much-branched feathery foliage. The "leaves"or modified stems are needle-like cladodes(branchlets) in the axils of scale leaves. The root system is adventitious and the root type is fasciculated.
The flowers are bell-shaped, greenish-white to yellowish, axillary, fascicled, solitary or in pairs.
Parts used:
Roots and seeds of ripe fruit
Medicinal properties:
Asparagus has been used as a vegetable and medicine because of its diuretic properties, antispasmodic, anti-inflammatory, diaphoretic, mild aperient, sedative, laxative, demulcent and the green resin it contains is believed to be calming to the heart.
Asparagus is high in vitamin B1, B6, B12, Vit A, C, E, K, calcium, magnesium and zinc. It is also a good source of dietary fiber, protein, beta-carotene, rutin, niacin, folic acid, iron, phosphorus, potassium, copper, manganese, selenium and chromium. Asparagus is low in calorie and sodium.
This vegetable is also a natural free radical scavenger and antioxidant.
Medicinal Uses:
Asparagus is considered a useful supplement for hangovers.
Anti-Cancer: Asparagus has sarsasapogenin O, and seven known steroids which demonstrated significant cytotoxicities against human A2780, HO-8910 and other tumor cells.
Asparagus also alleviates pain caused by rheumatism, chronic gout and the green resin is used for flatulence, calculous affections and cardiac dropsy.
Water in which asparagus was boiled is good for rheumatism and the roots are considered a powerful diuretic and used also for bronchial catarrh and pulmonary tuberculosis.