Chicory is occasionally adulterated with roasted pulse (called Hambro’ powder), damaged corn, and coffee husks (“coffee flights,” as they are technically termed). We have also heard of parsnips having been roasted, ground, and mixed with chicory. Dr. Hassall gives a long list of other substances which have been found as adulterants of coffee.
Treacle is sometimes introduced into fictitious chicory, to give the caramel or saccharine odour possessed by real chicory.
Dr. Hassall says the roasted chicory root yields from 45 to 65 per cent. of soluble extractive. Its solution in water is acid, and it does not possess the peculiar bitter taste of the raw root; but the taste of the liquid is more like that of burnt sugar. The copper test shows the presence of from 10 to 13 per cent. of sugar.
The following analysis represents the per-centage composition of chicory root in its different conditions:
Raw root. Kiln dried. Hygroscopic moisture 77·0 15·0 Gummy matter (like pectine) 7·5 20·8 Glucose, or grape sugar 1·1 10·5 Bitter extractive 4·0 19·3 Fatty matter 0·6 1·9 Cellulose, inuline, and woody matter 9·0 29·5 Ash 0·8 3·0 ----- ----- 100·0 100·0
The composition of the roasted root was as follows:
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.