|  Botany
Plant is a kind of leek, ranked-scented,
green, growing 20 to 40 cm high. Bulbs are small, white and clustered.
Leaves are green, grasslike, narrowly linear, flattish, 15 to 30 cm
long, 3 to 6 mm wide. Umbel has a few to many flowers. The perianth
is bell-shaped. Fruits are on pedicels of 2 to 3 cm long, obovoid, 3-lobed,
5 to 7 mm in diameter. Seeds are black, depressed, globose or reniform,
2.5 to 3 mm in diameter. In the Philippines, the plant seldom flowers.
Distribution
Cultivated in the Manila area by the
Chinese.
Uses
Culinary
Used like onion or
food flavoring spice.
Folkloric
• Externally, the fresh leaves
and bulbs are used as antiseptic and vulnerary.
• Leaves taken internally, act as a cordial.
• In Indo-Chiina,
whole plant used as a diuretic.
• In Manipur, used
for hemolytic anemia and insomnia.
Studies
• Antoxidant: Study
showed part of the Allium family possess antioxidant capability. Heat
treatments reduced the antioxidant activity for most foods.
• Antifungal: Study
of extracts of 7 Allium plants, including Chinese chive, were examined for antifungal activity against three Aspergillus species: A niger, A flavus and A fumigatus. All the plants possessed antifungal activity, the inhibitory activity decreased with increasing incubation and heating temperature. Acetic acid plus heat treatment of the extracts resulted in greater inhibition.
Availability
Cultivated.
Extracts and seeds in the cybermarket.
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