What kinds of flowers can be eaten or used?

China has a long history of edible flowers. As early as the Tang Dynasty, people regarded Osmanthus Jelly and Chrysanthemum Cake as banquet treasures. In Fanfangpu in Qing Dynasty, the preparation methods of more than 20 kinds of flower foods, such as sweet-scented osmanthus balls, jasmine soup, sweet-scented osmanthus scallops, jasmine chicken breast, chrysanthemum cake and crystal sugar lily soup, are described in detail. These foods are tonics and can also treat bronchitis and neurasthenia. Chrysanthemum can be used to make high-end food and dishes. Plum blossoms can be used to make preserves and jam. Osmanthus fragrans can be used to make sweet-scented osmanthus candy, cakes, sweet-scented osmanthus sauce and sweet-scented osmanthus wine. The fruits or bulbs of many flowers and trees can also be eaten raw. Fruits such as pomegranate, kumquat, fig and grape, as well as underground stems and bulbs of lotus, lily and Polygonatum odoratum, are all nutritious edible products. Nutritional value of pollen: pollen is the reproductive organ of seed plants, the male sperm cells and the concentrate of plant generations. Pollen is a kind of natural substance with rich nutrition and concentrated complete nutrients, which is called "green gold", "all-round nutrition bank" and "mini nutrition bank". Pollen contains high-quality protein, up to more than 30%, 22 kinds of amino acids, 8 times higher than eggs, milk and meat, and 15 kinds of vitamins, which are higher than any fruit and better than vitamin capsules. Among them, the contents of VE and B2 are extremely high, more than five times that of wheat germ? /FONT & gt； LO times; It also contains more than 20 kinds of trace elements, more than 80 kinds of bioactive substances such as enzymes, hormones and flavonoids, and rich nucleic acids. The bioactive substances in pollen have wonderful regulating effects on various physiological functions of human body and physiological activities of various organ systems, so pollen is used for health care of almost all organ systems of human body and has a good therapeutic effect on diseases of all organ systems.

(2) Flowers and food

Cauliflower rose in China as early as 2000 years ago. In Qu Yuan's Lisao, there is a description that "Mulan falls early and chrysanthemums fall late". During the Tang and Song Dynasties, flower-eating was popular in the royal family. After the publication of Lin Hong's monograph Shan Jia Qing Gong in Song Dynasty, Biography of Flowers was gradually introduced to the people, and it is still widely circulated today. It is reported that Empress Dowager Cixi is fond of flowers. She dried roses, jasmine flowers and wild winter flowers and mixed them with tea to drink. She often orders the chef to pick flowers and cook delicious food. Empress Dowager Cixi invented a sweet sauce made of roses and sugar, which was delicious in flavor and taste. In summer, she asked the chef to collect many fresh lotus flowers, peel off the most complete petals, soak them in flour mixed with eggs, add chicken soup or refined sugar, divide them into sweet and salty ones, and fry them thoroughly in an oil pan to make very delicious snacks. Before and after Tomb-Sweeping Day, when the tall magnolia trees in the palace are in full bloom, the plump petals will be picked and sent to the chef, and fried into sweet magnolia slices according to the method of processing lotus flowers for Cixi to enjoy at any time.

Flowers have become delicious food for gourmets because of their unique nutritional, cosmetic and medical values. Modern nutritionists believe that flowers are mostly rich in nutrients such as starch, fat and protein, and also contain trace elements such as vitamins, zinc, iron and potassium, and phytochemicals beneficial to human body. Moreover, cauliflower is fragrant, fresh and delicious, rich in amino acids and vitamins, not only rich in nutritional value, but also beautiful and novel in appearance.

Eating flowers is a good way to beauty and skin care. Peach blossom, for example, contains a variety of nutrients, which can improve blood circulation, promote skin nutrition and oxygen supply, and moisturize the skin. It also contains a variety of vitamins and trace elements, which can prevent the chronic deposition of melanin on the skin and effectively remove chloasma, freckles and dark spots. Plant proteins and free amino acids in peach blossoms are easily absorbed by the skin, which is effective in preventing and treating dryness, roughness and wrinkles of the skin. Pear is white in color, crystal beautiful, simple and pure, and bitter and fragrant in taste. External use can remove acne, make skin shiny, and make facial skin delicate, white and smooth as jade. Taking flowers into dishes is not only good in color, smell and taste, but also conducive to stimulating appetite. More importantly, it is a simple and cheap way to treat some minor illnesses.

Flowers are colorful, elegant and unique, fragrant and full of vitality. They not only give people beautiful enjoyment, but also are rich in protein, fat, starch, various amino acids and vitamins, as well as various nutrients necessary for human body, such as macro elements and trace elements, which have certain medicinal value and health care functions. Chewing flowers existed in ancient Rome as early as two thousand years ago, and now it has set off a new upsurge in the United States. Even Michael Jackson, a sickly international rock star, once ate seven freshly picked flowers in a hotel in Florida. Flower cooking has also become popular. The chef removed the roses from the soup surface, made a salad with dandelion buds and made pancakes with flowers. The most popular cake for diners should be the cake sprinkled with rose perfume and lettuce vegetable oil. The flower-eating craze is not the creation of anyone, but the retro enthusiasm inadvertently aroused by California restaurant owners and flower farmers. There is a paradise farm in gabriela, California, and its owner Nun is the first person in California to sell organically grown edible flowers. Business is very good, and demand is often in short supply. He planted nearly 40 edible flowers. The first species is Trollius chinensis. Later, I found that sesame cauliflower was beautiful and delicious, so I began to plant it in large quantities. Then violets, pansies, chrysanthemums, dandelions and so on were introduced. Nuin said: "Among them, pansy and violet are most favored by customers and chefs because of their bright colors and good color and fragrance." Now, Paradise Farm has customers all over the United States. Today, restaurants that make a lot of money from flower meals are not only in California. The ace dish of a luxury restaurant in Dahners is "Pickled Roses", and a famous restaurant in Philadelphia has become even more famous since it introduced "Lotus Juice Ice Water".

(3) Flower dietotherapy

Yin Hua lotus seed soup. 30 grams of honeysuckle and 50 grams of lotus seeds (without removing the core). Boil honeysuckle, remove residue, and cook lotus seeds. Add some sugar when eating. It can clear away heat and toxic materials, strengthen the spleen and stop diarrhea. Diarrhea and dysentery caused by heat toxin disturbing the large intestine, acute internal stress followed by severe internal stress, accompanied by fever, burning anus and fire annoyance can be used as complementary food.

Chinese rose soup (Compendium of Materia Medica): Use 3, 15 failed Chinese rose flowers, wash them, add 2 cups of water, fry them to L cups with slow fire, add 30 grams of rock sugar, dry them and take them warmly. Treat amenorrhea due to blood stasis, dysmenorrhea, and traumatic swelling and pain.

Jasmine drink: 5 grams of jasmine, 20 grams of sugar, flowers and sugar are boiled in water, and dregs are removed for drinking. Or brew with boiling water. Can be used for treating chest and rib pain caused by stagnation of liver qi.

Jasmine tremella soup: 25g tremella, 20 jasmine flowers. Put clear soup in the pot, add tremella, cooking wine, salt and monosodium glutamate, boil and sprinkle with jasmine. It has a good therapeutic effect on cough due to lung heat, dry cough due to lung explosion, blood in sputum, gastrointestinal fever, constipation and bleeding, senile bronchitis, dizziness, chronic pharyngitis, irregular menstruation, hemoptysis due to pulmonary tuberculosis, coronary heart disease and hypertension. It is the best tonic for neurasthenia and post-illness weakness.

Sweet-scented osmanthus chestnut glutinous rice paste: 250g chestnuts, 50g glutinous rice, appropriate amount of sugar and appropriate amount of sweet-scented osmanthus. Boil chestnuts in water to make them brittle, shell them, press them into mud, cook glutinous rice into porridge, add chestnut mud and white sugar, cook them slightly, and take out osmanthus. Benefiting kidney qi, treating kidney deficiency, dysuria, frequent urination, dysuria and other symptoms of the elderly.

Osmanthus porridge: 50 grams of sweet potato, 25 grams of japonica rice, and some osmanthus. Steam sweet potatoes in water, peel and grind them into mud, add rice porridge and white sugar, then boil and remove sugar. Can be used as nutritious food for children.

Lotus porridge: collect its petals, dry them and grind them into powder for later use. Cook the porridge with100g of stem rice until the porridge is cooked into10g of lotus powder-15g, and boil until it is boiled. It can clear away heat and relieve summer heat, dissipate blood stasis and lose weight. It is also a bodybuilding medicine that calms the heart, benefits the qi and keeps the forehead.

Plum blossom porridge: first cook two stalks to cook porridge. When the porridge is cooked, add 5g of Bai Meihua and cook it twice. Generally, 5 to 7 days is a course of treatment. Cooking porridge with plum blossom can treat mental fatigue, pharyngitis, anorexia and sore poison. Long-term use can strengthen the body. It can soothe the liver, regulate qi, strengthen the spleen and relieve chest tightness.

Chrysanthemum porridge: collect flowers and remove pedicels before the first frost in autumn, dry them and grind them into fine powder. Cook porridge with100g of stem rice, add10g of chrysanthemum powder-15g after cooking, and cook for another minute or two. It can lower blood pressure, dilate coronary artery, increase coronary blood volume, slow down heart rate and strengthen myocardial contraction.

Flat bean curd porridge: Take flat dried bean curd that is not completely opened in July-August every year and dry it with selenium. Cook porridge with 100g stem rice. When the porridge is ready, add 10g flat tofu and cook it once or twice. It can promote gastrointestinal peristalsis, stimulate appetite, help digestion, stimulate appetite, strengthen spleen, clear heat and eliminate dampness.

Peach blossom porridge: 4 grams of peach blossom (2 grams of dried product), japonica rice 100 grams. Cook these two things into porridge. It is suitable for constipation caused by gastrointestinal dryness and heat. Take it every other day 1 time, and stop taking it immediately, but not for a long time.

Honey honeysuckle dew: 30 grams of honeysuckle and 30 grams of white honey. Decoct Flos Lonicerae with water, remove residues, and add honey, and take it three times and four times. It has a good effect on preventing influenza and treating lung dryness and cough. Hua Shuang drink: 50 grams of honeysuckle, 50 grams of chrysanthemum and 500 grams of honey. The honeysuckle, chrysanthemum and hawthorn are decocted in water to make a thick juice, and then eaten with honey. It is not only a cool drink in summer, but also a health drink for fever, cooking thirst, dizziness, sore throat, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, coronary heart disease, purulent infection and other diseases in summer.

Chimonanthus praecox is warm, non-toxic, drinkable and medicinal, and has the effect of relieving summer heat and promoting fluid production. Hibiscus can clear away heat and cool blood, and can be taken orally. White orchid, pomegranate flower, forsythia flower, honeysuckle flower, hibiscus flower, osmanthus fragrans, rose and jasmine flower are all nontoxic, edible and can be used as medicine.

Fragrant flowers are: jasmine, narcissus, rose, osmanthus, Daphne, orchid, white orchid, lily, clove, smile, honeysuckle, Milan and so on.

The whole herb of Abelmoschus manihot is used as medicine, and the roots, leaves and flower seeds are used as medicine for oral administration, mainly for relaxing bowels. External use of flowers or leaves to treat carbuncle, swelling, sores, bee and scorpion stings; Radical treatment of enteritis and dysentery. Its seedlings can be eaten as vegetables; Peeled stems can be used as ropes.

Sunflowers can also be used for Chinese herbal medicine and beauty. In recent years, with the continuous improvement of people's living standards, it has developed into a green food, and many delicious dishes cooked with its flowers have become characteristic foods with high nutritional content. It has many uses, such as food, medicine, beauty and appreciation.

Winter coral can be used as medicine, but it is poisonous. Oleander, corn poppy, Roman, narcissus, etc. They are all toxic and cannot be imported. Flowers sold in the market should not be used for cooking at will. Because it is necessary to prevent pesticides.

There are more than 2,200 kinds of drugs listed in the book National Compilation of Chinese Herbal Medicine, of which about 1/3 are flowers. Canna, for example, its roots can be used as medicine to promote blood circulation, diuresis, soothe the nerves and lower blood pressure. Lily, as a kind of medicinal material with bulbs, has the effects of moistening lung, relieving cough, clearing heart fire and calming nerves. Mainly used for treating lung cancer with chronic cough, hematemesis, residual heat after fever, mental fatigue, fright and trance. Jasmine can relieve summer heat and ease the mood; Chrysanthemum can refresh the brain, clear the liver and improve eyesight.

In addition, the fragrance of flowers can also cure diseases. It is found that the fragrance of more than 300 kinds of flowers contains different fungicides, many of which are beneficial to human body, and different floral scents have adjuvant therapeutic effects on different diseases.

Spring is the season when flowers bloom. There are many edible flowers, such as Magnolia, Rose, Rose, Pear, Yang Shuhua, Honeysuckle and Sophora japonica.

According to Professor Du, the chief nutritionist of the Nutrition Department of Qianfoshan Hospital in Shandong Province, not all flowers can cook, so when choosing cauliflower, we must first determine whether it is non-toxic. For example, some flowers, such as oleander, Datura stramonium, single flower and poinsettia, contain harmful ingredients and cannot be eaten at will. At the same time, the starch and sugar of flowers are relatively high, so they can be imported and taste good. Usually considered as official vegetables, taro flower, leek flower, lily flower, pumpkin flowers, magnolia flower, wisteria flower, Sophora japonica flower, lotus flower, plantain flower, etc. In addition, roses, chrysanthemums, epiphyllum, kapok, jasmine, orchids, osmanthus and so on are all beauty products.

These beautiful and fragrant flowers and dishes are not for everyone. The human body is different, and everyone's skin color, skin quality and physique are different. Even if flowers (non-toxic and therapeutic) are helpful to people, they can't be the same. If some guests are allergic to pollen, they can only sigh at the ocean. Relatively speaking, edible flowers are still a small number, and it is best to eat them under the guidance of professionals. Most flowers can't be eaten casually. For some people who want to cook flowers and vegetables at home, it is particularly important to find out whether the selected flowers can be eaten in their mouths and which parts they should eat before starting work.

Even different varieties of the same flower have different effects. Eating poisonous flowers by mistake can cause allergic and toxic reactions. In addition, the flowers in restaurants are generally directly supplied by the ecological park, which is a green food specially cultivated for cooking. However, most of the flowers sold in the market have pesticide and fertilizer residues, which are not suitable for eating. It is best to choose the flowers planted at home to be more assured. At the same time, the cooking of flowers should generally be light, not fried or overweight, and the color and fragrance of flowers should be kept as much as possible.

Eating flowers not only looks pleasing to the eye, but also feels very good when eaten in the mouth after frying, which can be described as "three clean": crisp, fragrant and light.

When tasting flowers and dishes, we mainly eat blooming petals, or use sugar stains, or salt, or hot water, or fresh into the pot, stir-fry and make desserts or stews.

For example, peony flowers can be eaten in a variety of ways, such as frying, burning, frying and making soup, all of which can be delicious. For example, peony flowers and meat are stewed into "gravy peony", which is bright in color and delicious. Peony is wrapped in flour and fried, which is delicious and attractive; When making peony flower tremella soup, sprinkle some peony petals, which are bright and fragrant, and make people have an appetite. Besides, fried fish fillets with peony and fried duck ribs with peony are also seasonal delicacies.

Peach blossom can be made into seasonal food, such as stewed hibiscus with peach blossom and crab roe, boiled bullfrog with peach perfume, boiled fresh fish with peach blossom and so on. Sophora japonica can be steamed with salt, pepper, onion, ginger, garlic, wormwood and other seasonings, which can be eaten as a meal or as a meal.