Coffee and chicory : $b Their culture, chemical composition, preparation for market, and consumption, with simple tests for detecting adulteration, and practical hints for the producer and consumerSimmonds, P. L. (Peter Lund)
Science
Coffee and chicory : $b Their culture, chemical composition, preparation for market, and consumption, with simple tests for detecting adulteration, and practical hints for the producer and consumer
Simmonds, P. L. (Peter Lund)
Chicory; Coffee; Food adulteration and inspection
Hygroscopic moisture 14·5 12·8
Gummy matter 9·5 14·9
Glucose 12·2 10·4
Matter like burnt sugar 29·1 24·4
Fatty matter 2·0 2·2
Brown or burnt woody
matter 28·4 28·5
Ash 4·3 6·8
----- -----
100·0 100·0
Dr. Hassall gives the following results of trials instituted to
determine the effect of chicory on the human frame.
Three persons partook of a chicory breakfast. The infusion was
dark-coloured, thick, destitute of the agreeable and refreshing aroma so
characteristic of coffee, and was of a bitter taste.
Each individual experienced for some time after drinking this infusion a
sensation of heaviness, drowsiness, a feeling of weight at the stomach,
and great indisposition to exertion; in two headache set in, and in the
third the bowels were relaxed. In second and third trials of the chicory
breakfast the same feelings of drowsiness, weight of the stomach, and
want of energy were experienced, but no headache or diarrhœa. Several
other trials were subsequently made, with nearly similar results. But
chicory, it will be said, is seldom taken alone in this country, and
when mixed with coffee these effects are not produced.
Two persons partook, for a considerable period, twice a day, of an
article denominated coffee, costing 1s. 6d. a pound, and largely
adulterated with chicory; during nearly the whole of this time they both
suffered more or less from diarrhœa.
From the results of these trials, therefore, we are warranted in
concluding that at least some doubt is attached to the assertion of the
wholesome properties of chicory-root as an article of diet.
Several characters, sufficiently simple and easily recognised for
general application, have been indicated in different works for
detecting the addition of roasted chicory to coffee in the roasted and
ground state, but the application of chemical reagents for detecting the
presence of the colouring matter of roasted chicory, when added to
infusion of coffee, has not yet proved successful.
The brownish-yellow colouring matter which is developed in chicory-root
by the process of roasting, when dissolved in water by infusion or
decoction, retains its colour, or becomes a little deeper by the action
of persalts of iron, without giving rise to any precipitation.
The brown colouring matter of roasted coffee, on the other hand,
acquires, from the same reagent, a green colour, and a brownish-green
flocculent precipitate is formed. These two different reactions may be
applied, not only for distinguishing the pure infusion of coffee and of
chicory, but also those which contain a mixture of the soluble
principles of the two alimentary substances.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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