Endive(Sonchus arvensis L.) is a perennial herbaceous plant belonging to the family Compositae. The roots are straight and straight, the stems are upright, up to 150 cm high, with thin stripes, and many basal leaves. The leaves are oblique semi-elliptic, elliptical, oval, oblique oval, oblique triangle, semicircular or ear-shaped, Apical lobes are slightly larger, long ovate, ellipse, or long ovate ellipse; flower heads are arranged into corymbs at the top of stems and branches.

Bell-shaped involucre. The bract is lanceolate, with many lingual florets, yellow color. The achenes are slightly flattened, oblong, with white crests, and bloom and bear fruit from January to September.

Endive is distributed globally several times. It generally grows on hillside grassland, forest grassland, wetland or near water, village or riverside gravel beach at an altitude of 300-2300 meters.
The benefits of Endive can be made into medicine. It has the effects of clearing away heat and detoxification, removing dampness and pus, cooling blood, and stopping bleeding.

Morphological characteristics – Benefits of Endive

Perennial herb. The roots extend vertically and have rhizomes somewhat. The stem is upright, 30-150 cm high, with fine stripes, with corymbous branches on the upper or top part, and the inflorescence branches and peduncle densely capitulate with glandular hairs.

There are many basal leaves, and the middle and lower stems and leaves are full-shaped oblanceolate or oblong, feathery or backward pinnately parted, semi-cleft or lobed, 6-24 cm in total length, 1.5-6 in height Cm, 2-5 pairs of lateral lobes, oblique semi-ellipse, ellipse, oval, oblique oval, oblique triangle, semicircle or ear-shaped, apical lobes slightly larger, long oval, oval or long Oval ellipse;

The edges of all leaf lobes have small serrations or no serrations but have small pointed ends; the upper stems and leaves and the lower leaves of the inflorescence branches are lanceolate or linear, small or extremely small;
The base of all leaves is narrow and long or short pterygoid, but the stems and leaves above the middle are sessile. The base is round ear-shaped enlarged semi-stalk, the top is sharp, short acuminate or blunt, and both sides are smooth and hairless.
Flower heads are arranged in corymbs at the top of stems and branches. The involucre is campanulate, 1-1-5 cm long and 0.8-1 cm wide, with sparse or dense long or short hairs at the base.

Involucre 3 layers, outer lanceolate, 4-6 mm long, 1-1.5 mm wide, middle and inner lanceolate, 1.5 cm long and 3 mm wide; all involucre apex is long and acuminate, There is a line of capitate stalked glandular hairs along the midrib.
Many lingual florets, yellow. The achene is slightly flattened, oblong, 3.7-4 mm long, and 0.8-1 mm wide, with 5 thin ribs on each side and horizontal wrinkles between the ribs.
The crest is white, 1.5 cm long, soft, entangled with each other, and the base is connected into a ring. Flower and fruit period from January to September.

Nutritional value – Benefits of Endive

1. The young stem and leaves of endive contain water, 3% protein, 1% fat, and 17 kinds of amino acids, among which arginine, histidine, and glutamic acid have the highest content, accounting for 43% of the total amino acids. These 3 amino acids are all effective for infiltrative hepatitis.
2. Arginine also has the effect of eliminating fatigue and improving sexual function. Glutamic acid can combine with blood ammonia in the body to form glutamine, which is beneficial to the body, relieve the harmful effects of ammonia produced in the process of tissue metabolism, and participate in the metabolism of brain tissue to make the brain function active.
3. endive also contains iron, copper, magnesium, zinc, calcium, manganese, and many other elements. Among them, calcium and zinc contents is 3 times and 5 times of spinach, 2.7 times, and 20 times of celery. Calcium and zinc are important for maintaining normal physiological activities of the body, especially the growth and development of children.
4. Endive is rich in vitamins. It is measured that each 100g fresh sample contains 58.10mg of vitamin C, 2.40mg of vitamin E and 3.36mg of carotene.

The 4 Benefits of endive

• Fructus endive has the effects of clearing heat and detoxification, cooling blood and removing dampness, reducing swelling and pus, stasis and pain relief, tonic and cough.

• It has a good effect on preventing and treating anemia, maintaining normal physiological activities of the human body, promoting growth and development, and relieving heat.

• Eating Endive is helpful to promote the synthesis of antibodies in the human body, enhance the body’s immunity, and promote brain function.

• The rich iron element in the endive is beneficial to prevent anemia, a variety of inorganic salts and trace elements are beneficial to the growth and development of children, and multiple vitamins can promote wound healing and prevent vitamin deficiency.