Fat hen for lame horses Diesel and his engine

摘要

FAT HEN, Chenopodium album, is a native, annual summer flowering plant, found on cultivated land and waste ground. It can be an invasive and troublesome weed, particularly among root vegetable crops, although in Britain it is often grown alongside sugar beet to act as a trap crop for the beet leafhopper insect. It has been eaten as a vegetable since Neolithic times, and is still grown as a food crop in some parts of Asia and Africa. In Europe it fell from favour with the introduction of spinach and cabbages in the 16th century. It contains high levels of vitamin C, and its seeds were ground into flour. It was used as a food crop for sheep and pigs, as well as poultry (hence its common name), but it can contain high levels of nitrates. The leaves contain the anthelmintic ascaridole, used to treat roundworm and hookworm infestation.