Rhubarb is native to Asia and is often used by Mongolians especially by the Tatars tribe of the Gobi desert.
Rhubarb belongs to the Polygonaceae family and has big, triangular shaped leaves with fleshy petioles.
Rhubarb can be grown all round the year in warm climatic regions and in colder climates. Rhubarb is often mistaken as a fruit but it actually belongs to the vegetable family.
In cold regions, the parts of the plant which are above the ground disapear in the winters and appear only in early spring.
Rhubarb can be also grown in containers so long as it can contain the full term. Rhubarb is one of the few plants which can be taken as food immediately after its harvest which is around spring. Several varieties of rhubarb are used for medicinal and domestic purposes.
Rhubarb is rich in vitamin C and dietary fibre. It is 95% water and has a modest store of potassiumand vitamins. It is however, low in vitamins. One cup of diced rhubarb is said to contain about 26 calories. Rhubarb acts as a hepatic stimulant and therefore beneficial for digestive purposes.
Many varieties of rhubarb are cultivated but the one mostly used for food is identified as Rheum x hybridum. The genus of the plant rhubarb contains 60 extant species and Garden
Rhubarb is the one of the most commonly used ingredients in cooking. Rhubarb is specially cultivated for its fleshy stalks which are cooked in several ways. You can stew the stalk for producing tart sauce that can be taken with stewd fruit or used as filling for pies, crumbles and tarts. It is also used extensively in pies and also referred as the “pie plant.” Rhubarb is also cooked with strawberries or used in jam with stem and root ginger. It is also used to make wine. Earlier,
rhubarb stick was used in the UK and Sweden as a sweet dipped in sugar for children.
If you are not not using
rhubarb immediately, you can store rhubarb by caning, freezing, refrigeration and drying.
Unlike the rhubarb stalk which is used for a variety of purposes rhubarb leaves are poisonous and contain oxalic acid which is highly dangerous for the body and should not be consumed. The oxalic acid is too toxic for human consumption. The roots of
rhubarab are used for laxative purposes for more than 5000 years.
