Wednesday, January 13, 2016

The Science of Herbs and Spices

One way that plants recognize an attack by insects or by mold is by detecting the presence of chitin, which is an unusual cellulose-like molecule found in the cell walls of molds and in the exoskeletons of insects and crustaceans. Chitosan, a modified version of crustacean chitin, is a versatile material and commonly available at health food stores. And as it turns out, if you expose a plant to chitosan, the plant will respond as if it were under attack, and rev up its production of chemical defenses.In one experiment, basil plants that were given chitosan-infused water accumulated 20 percent more essential oil in two to three days than unexposed plants. Similar effects have been observed in broccoli and soy sprouts. Chitosan is essentially plant stress in a bottle—the alarm without the damage.

What does all of this mean for the cook? For one thing, you should think twice before you discard slightly buggy or moth-eaten produce. It may not be presentable as is, but it may have more flavor and nutrition than a perfect leaf. And if you grow plants of your own—even pots of herbs in the window or on the rooftop—you may get more flavor by lacing their drinking water with chitosan.

 
How you handle herbs can also affect their flavor. The defensive chemicals responsible for plant flavors are usually concentrated in fine, hairlike glands on the leaf surfaces (the mint family, including basil, oregano, sage, shiso, and thyme) or in special canals within the leaves (most other herbs). If you leave the herbs pretty much intact, what you get is mainly the characteristic flavor of that herb. But if you crush the herb, or cut it very finely, you damage a lot of cells and cause the release of the green, grassy, vegetal defensive chemicals. These can come to dominate the herb’s own particular flavor.


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