Chives and its Health Effects

Chives or Allium schoenoprasum aka: bei cong, ciboulette, asatsuki, or cebolleta; is perhaps the mildest of the edibles of the Allium Genus which includes Onion, Garlic and Leek. Altogether the Genus covers over 1250 species and is one biggest of the plant world. It matches Basil with its first reported cultivation in Asia around 2300 BCE, although it was predominately in China. Marco Polo introduced Chives to Europe through his family trading business from 1268 CE onwards. Chives went on to become an integral part of European cuisine and were carried to the New World as part and parcel of European civilisation.

Although chives are most used in the kitchen there has been a recent return (exiled by industrial revolution propaganda introduction of hybrid seed, mono-cropping, fertilisers and pesticides) to their use as an effective living insect repellent planted around the borders of crops and inter-planted with certain crops. Thus Chives can partly aid in the long term withdrawal symptoms of the farmer from the destructive non-sustainable heroin of modern industrial agriculture. Like Basil it is their volatile oils which make them popular as a culinary herb, but unlike Basil you can freeze Chives and still retain most of their original volatile oils. They are fairly useless when dried and do loose nearly all their volatiles in this process, so they are best fresh but can be frozen in a pinch if you have a bumper harvest etc.

In various cultures Chives has enjoyed an ancient reputation for being an aphrodisiac this anecdotal evidence originates from the Siberian steppes. It was here Alexander the Great was given the gift of chives by the Siberian Chiefs, just before his marriage day with this intention. In Europe shortly after their introduction Chives took on a protector mythology and was hung outside homes to ward off diseases like the plague etc. So does Chives deserve its mythological status? Let’s find out and take a gander at the chemical compounds found in Chives and their effects on the human body.

With only 112 chemical compounds Chives clocks in at 499 activities or individual effects on the human body. Like Basil, I will list the top five in terms of number of compounds that support a given effect. This does not however give that effect more importance over others; it just provides a way to highlight five of the 499 effects.

Chives come in first with Cancer Preventative effects at 22 compounds that are known to have a preventative action toward initial cancer development.(ALANINE, ALPHA-LINOLENIC-ACID, ASCORBIC-ACID, BETA-CAROTENE, CAFFEIC-ACID, FERULIC-ACID, FIBER, GLYCINE, KAEMPFEROL, LINOLEIC-ACID, METHIONINE, MUFA, MYRISTIC-ACID, NIACIN, OLEIC-ACID, P-COUMARIC-ACID, PANTOTHENIC-ACID, QUERCETIN, RIBOFLAVIN, SERINE, SUCCINIC-ACID, TYROSINE)

Anti-oxidants are second with 16 compounds supporting an anti-oxidant effect upon the human body by helping the body by donating their electrons (which they can regain elsewhere without harm) to stabilise free radicals who are missing theirs and therefore dangerous. (ALANINE, ALLYL-MERCAPTAN, ASCORBIC-ACID, BETA-CAROTENE, CAFFEIC-ACID, CAMPESTEROL, FERULIC-ACID, FUMARIC-ACID, HISTIDINE, KAEMPFEROL, METHIONINE, MYRISTIC-ACID, P-COUMARIC-ACID, PALMITIC-ACID, QUERCETIN, TRYPTOPHAN)

Chives are an Anti-Inflammatory or a substance that reduces inflammation, which is the intricate reaction of blood vessel tissue to various stimuli resulting in inflammation of that tissue. An Anti-inflammatory normally makes up 50% of any analgesic pain killer. There are 12 compounds in Chives that support this effect. (ALPHA-LINOLENIC-ACID, ASCORBIC-ACID, CAFFEIC-ACID, COPPER, FERULIC-ACID, KAEMPFEROL, LINOLEIC-ACID, MAGNESIUM, MUFA, OLEIC-ACID, QUERCETIN, SALICYLATES)

There are 10 compounds in Chives that have known Anti-Tumour effects on various types of tumours e.g. Ferulic Acid has recently shown promise in lab tests in directly reducing tumour growth in breast and liver cancers. (BETA-CAROTENE, CAFFEIC-ACID, CITRIC-ACID, FERULIC-ACID, FIBER, FUMARIC-ACID, KAEMPFEROL, MALIC-ACID, P-COUMARIC-ACID, QUERCETIN)

There are also 10 compounds that are known Vasodilators or compounds that increase the dilation of blood vessels. In the main blood system this would cause blood pressure to drop. The vasodilatation process is used by the body to regulate temperature by enlarging or contracting the surface superficial blood vessels dilations, and thereby controlling the amount of heat released by the body. (ALPHA-LINOLENIC-ACID, ARGININE, ASCORBIC-ACID, CALCIUM, FIBER, KAEMPFEROL, MAGNESIUM, NIACIN, POTASSIUM, QUERCETIN)

Chives are the mild youngest brother in a large family, and whilst they have enjoyed a higher popularity in food. They have little mythological presence apart from a vague warding power and aphrodisiac mentions over the centuries, and it is the same for its traditional medicinal use. Chives are surpassed medically and in mythology by its far more potent Onion and Garlic strong elder brothers, who being in the Allium Genus have many of the same compounds but in far higher concentrations. Chives have been used in traditional medicine for:

Anaemia (a deficiency of red blood cells)

Antiseptic (kills micro-organisms that carry disease or infection without harming the body tissue)

Carminative (prevents or eases the formation of gases in the alimentary canal)

Digestive (aids general digestion)

Diuretic (increases flow of water from the renal system)

So while Chives are not a powerhouse of effects on the body like Basil due to the lower concentrations of all these compounds. They do still have an effect every time you consume them, 499 effects to be precise no matter at what strength they are induced within the body. Though amongst those effects I did not see any link to being an aphrodisiac but certainly as a topical antiseptic and perhaps anti-bacterial that possibly could have given rise to hanging it outside the house to ward off disease in Europe. I also know that Alliums in general are avoided by Buddhist deep meditators because they tend to “scatter” the mind, perhaps this is the Tryptophan content, a compound known for it range of conscious altering states and used as an anti-psychotic.

Food for thought… C=;} (a winking chef)

In this series: Basil Dill Mint Oregano Parsley Rosemary Sage Thyme Conclusion