Common chicory (Cichorium intybus) also known as blue sailors, is a bushy perennial herb with blue, lavender, or white flowers. Chicory is widely seen in Europe, North America and Australia.

Cichorium intybus is an erect perennial herb. Chicory root contains tannin phlobaphenes and reducing sugars. Chicory seeds have carminative and cordial properties and are useful as a brain tonic and for headache, asthma and bilious vomiting.

Chicory is an acclaimed hepatoprotective, and, used in hepatic enlargement, fever, vomiting and abdominal pain. Chicory has cholagogue and anti-inflammatory properties.

Chicory has great value for its tonic affect upon the liver and digestive tract. The root and the leaves are appetizer, cholagogue, depurative, digestive, diuretic, hypoglycaemic, laxative and tonic. The root extracts have experimentally produced a slower and weaker heart rate]. The plant merits research for use in heart irregularities[222]. The plant is used in Bach flower remedies - the keywords for prescribing it are 'Possessiveness', 'Self-love' and 'Self-pity'[209]. The latex in the stems is applied to warts in order to destroy them[218].

Chicory contains vitamins B, C, K and P. Pliny talks of using Chicory juice with rose oil and vinegar for headaches. In Roman times it was used as a vegetable. Juice can also be drunk with wine to treat liver and bladder problems. The plant can also be used in remedies for gallstones. The root is used as a coffee substitute. The ancient Egyptians believed the plant could purify the blood and liver. Leaves can be used as compresses for skin inflammation. The plant supports the body's ability to absorb calcium.


In folklore, Chicory flowers are the eyes of a girl crying for her sweetheart's ship, which never returned. Chicory can also make you invisible (!) and could unlock boxes if a leaf of it was held against the lock. It had to be collected on 25 July (St James' Day) and cut with a knife of gold in silence, or the collector would die. German legend tells of a girl waiting by the roadside for her lover, who never came. She fell exhausted on to a patch of Chicory and died - hence it is also known as Watcher of the Road. A similar legend tells of a girl who fell in love with a sailor who left her to go to sea. She was distraught and the gods took pity on her and turned her into Chicory - hence another name for the plant - Blue Sailor Weed.

Leaves can be boiled to produce a blue dye. As with other violet-coloured flowers, Chicory flowers made a sweet known as Violet Plates in Tudor times. The seventeenth century alchemist, Paracelsus, claimed that, after 7 years, Chicory turned into a bird!

Plant in spring or autumn, in rich, well-drained soil in sun. Cut back plant in autumn.

CAUTION - IF USED TO EXCESS in MEDICINE IT MAY CAUSE LOSS OF RETINAL VISUAL POWER.